The man long suspected of being involved in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway is fighting extradition to the U.S.
Joran Van der Sloot, who was 17 when Holloway went missing in Aruba, is set to be extradited to the U.S. this week to face federal charges of extortion and wire fraud for allegedly extorting money out of Holloway’s mother by offering to tell her where her daughter’s body was. The information turned out to be false.
Van der Sloot is currently in a Peruvian prison for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores. An additional 18 years was added to his sentence this January for trafficking cocaine while in prison.
On Monday, Van der Sloot’s attorney, Maximo Altez, filed a habeas corpus petition in an attempt to block his client’s temporary transfer from Peru to the U.S. The petition, viewed by CNN, argues that Van der Sloot should not be transferred because he had not been officially notified.
CNN noted that Altez previously told the outlet’s Spanish-language site on May 30 that his client had agreed to the transfer and written him a letter saying, “I want to go to the U.S.”
At the end of March 2010, two months before he murdered Flores, Van der Sloot allegedly contacted a legal representative of Holloway’s mother Beth. Van der Sloot said he would tell Beth where her daughter’s body was and what led to her death if she paid him $25,000 up front and an additional $225,000 later. The legal representative, John Q. Kelly, went to Aruba to meet with Van der Sloot and gave him $100, after which Kelly reported the encounter to the FBI. A sting operation was set up to catch Van der Sloot, who accepted a $15,000 wire transfer to his bank account and a cash payment of $10,000, all of which was recorded by undercover investigators.
In exchange for the money, Van der Sloot told Kelly that his father – a judge – buried Holloway’s body in the foundation of a house. When authorities checked his story, they learned the house hadn’t even been built when Holloway disappeared. Van der Sloot eventually emailed Kelly to admit that he lied.
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Instead of arresting Van der Sloot right then, the FBI allowed him to take the $25,000 and leave for Bogotá, Colombia. He wouldn’t be indicted on the charges for another month, and it wouldn’t be until 2014 that the Peruvian government announced Van der Sloot would be extradited to the U.S. to face those charges – in 2023.
Holloway’s body has never been found. Van der Sloot was the last person to see her alive, but neither he nor anyone else has been charged in connection to her disappearance.