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Warning. The following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned.
In last week's episode, we walked you through the life and disappearance of Natalie Holloway, an 18-year-old girl who was visiting the island of Aruba on a senior trip in the summer of 2005. While on that trip, Natalie crossed paths with 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot and two brothers named Deepak and Satish.
Natalie was last seen leaving the bar with these three men. And after that, she has never been seen since. In the months after her disappearance, her family did everything in their power to try and find her.
but they ran into a multitude of problems along the way. There were lies, coverups, false leads, and the main suspect in Natalie's disappearance, Goran Vandersloot, seemed to be invincible due to his family's connections. Soon enough, the relationship between law enforcement and Natalie's family began to strain.
Eventually, the men were arrested, but in September of 2005, they were released due to lack of evidence. However, at the end of the day, everyone knew that Joran Vandersloot was responsible for Natalie's disappearance. And the events we are about to discuss in this episode will confirm his guilt all the more.
So this is the story of Natalie Holloway, part two. I'm Courtney Browen. And I'm Colin Browen. And you're listening to our new series, Murdered Americans. ♪♪
As summer came to an end in the year 2005, the Holloway family found themselves desperate for answers. Just a few months earlier, the main suspects and their daughter's disappearance were arrested. And finally, it seemed like justice was on the horizon. But in September of that year, the men would be released back into the free world due to lack of evidence.
and the Holloways were back at square one. By then, they had no other choice but to return back to the United States and move forward in their new reality. But it wasn't easy. How are you supposed to move on with your life when your 18-year-old daughter never came home from her Arubian vacation? How are you supposed to sleep knowing that the men responsible are walking around free?
Natalie's father Dave told the documentary The Disappearance of Natalie Holloway that when he got sad thinking about his daughter, he would turn on their old family videos. Videos that showed Natalie laughing, dancing, and enjoying her life. He said, quote, watching all of these tapes of Natalie when she was younger, you're happy that she was happy at the time.
But then again, you know, you just get a sinking feeling and you feel sorry for her. The grief that overcame Natalie's family was too much to bear at times. Dave said that sunglasses became his best friend because they'd help hide the tears. On some days, when he would think about never getting to see his daughter again, he would start to have panic attacks and they would get so bad, he sometimes thought he was having a heart attack.
And one of the most frustrating parts of all is that the main suspect in their daughter's disappearance, Joran van der Sloot, he kept changing his story. At first, he claimed he dropped Natalie off at the hotel
But once they were caught in that lie, he said he left her on the beach. Then he tried saying that Deepak was the last one seen with her. For Natalie's family, it was a whirlwind of emotions hearing him switch up his story so many times. And it left their minds to wonder, was Natalie buried somewhere on the island? Was she tossed out at sea?
But despite their extensive searches on both land and water, there hadn't been one single trace of her. By then, the reward money in Natalie's case had been raised to $1 million. And even though her family was no longer in Aruba, they continued doing everything they could to bring attention to her case here in the US. The Holloways were on every major news station in the country, including popular shows like Dr. Phil.
If you were around in 2005, you likely remember the coverage, as it was the most reported news story in the United States, even over the Iraq War. And with all of the extensive coverage, the island of Aruba soon started to feel the international pressure to solve this case. They felt as if they were this huge black mark in the world with all of the negative media attention.
But even with that, they still weren't making any progress. In November of 2005, Natalie's mom Beth would go back to Aruba to speak with Detective Jacobs about the case, and she claimed that he actually started interrogating her, and essentially accused her of faking her disappearance to scam people out of money.
Detective Jacobs then started placing blame on Natalie's classmates who were on the trip with her. And when Beth shut that down, he started offering up theories that Natalie probably ran away or even overdosed on drugs. It was blatantly obvious to Beth that Aruba was trying to push the blame anywhere they could to take the heat off themselves. She would later say, apparently their new strategy is to blame the victim and her family.
Are they doing anything to investigate this case as far as you can see? As far as we can see in the room, absolutely nothing. They want this case to go away at all costs. They don't want to do anything. They're not doing anything. And they're just hoping that it would go away.
on november 8 2005 alabama governor bob riley made a televised statement that suggested a boycott of aruba with beth and jug beside him governor riley hoped that the united states would back him he said until their lack of law enforcement practices can be evaluated and until they offer some resolution in natalie's case tourists are not safe in aruba or any dutch territories
And when the island of Aruba heard this, they were angry, to say the least. Tourism is a huge part of their economy, and with all this bad press, the locals and their businesses would be affected. So, in response, Aruba's prime minister announced, Aruban investigators have done their best to solve the mystery, and the entire island doesn't deserve to be punished. The relationship between victims' families and law enforcement can be tumultuous, especially when they don't see eye-to-eye.
In this case, Natalie's family believed that the Aruban police failed at every level, their investigative techniques, their lack of communication, and now they are victim blaming and failing to take any responsibility. Then on the other hand, the Aruban police believe that her family was ruining their investigation. In fact, police chief Gerald Dompeg said, "They brought out their big guns on the very first day and they started shooting.
They didn't understand the way things are done in our system. And they didn't want to understand. They act like they came from a world where you can just crush people. It was very harmful to our investigation. But at the end of the day, all Natalie's family wanted was a thorough investigation. And for the men responsible to be held accountable. And to them, with Joran's ever-changing stories...
It seemed like the island of Aruba just let their daughter's killer walk free, something they would have to grapple with for years to come.
Eventually, the Holloways were approached by this huge show in America called Dr. Phil, and Beth jumped at the opportunity to talk to him about Natalie's case. Dr. Phil's team also hired private investigators who went into Aruba and spoke with Deepak Kalpo. Using a hidden camera, they captured Deepak speaking very poorly of Natalie. He even called her a slut because she left a bar with three strangers and because of what she was wearing that night.
Deepak went on to say, and her mother, claiming her to be the goody two-shoes, enough with this BS already. Dr. Phil also aired a portion of the interview where the private investigator said, quote, If it was an accident, I can help all of you. If you guys were partying, even if someone had given her a date rape drug, I'm sure she had sex with all of you.
to which Deepak says, She did. You'd be surprised at how simple it was. Now this was huge. Here on tape, Deepak is admitting that he, his brother, and Joran all had sex with Natalie that night.
But Dr. Phil's show would soon face a lot of scrutiny because shortly after it aired, it was revealed that Dr. Phil's team actually edited that audio. In the original footage, instead of saying she did have sex with us, Deepak actually said she didn't.
And on the part where Deepak said, quote, you'd be surprised how simple it was. That was actually in response to another question he was asked. Now it's clearly unacceptable that Dr. Phil's team would edit the audio and Deepak would end up suing the Dr. Phil show for defamation. However, the case was eventually dismissed. But this incident only seemed to add more of a riff between the United States and Aruba.
Both continued to point fingers at each other. And in the meantime, Natalie's case was growing cold. Soon enough, the year 2005 would come to an end. But 2006 wasn't much easier. The stress of Natalie's disappearance started to take a toll on her family, especially her mom, Beth. That year, she and her husband, Jug, would get divorced and they had to move out of their home.
Beth would later say that having to pack up Natalie's room was one of the hardest things she's ever had to do. Since Natalie's disappearance, she had left everything as it was, completely untouched. Beth would later say, quote, "Natalie loved it in here. It was her place to work and her place of solace. It's where she giggled with friends and studied for tests. It's where she dressed for the prom.
It's Natalie's own space and everything in it represents her." But now, Beth found herself packing up the last thing she had to remember of Natalie. Now in terms of the investigation, they were actually making some headway. In 2006, investigators were finally able to gain access to Yorin's online chat logs with his friends.
and what they found was incredibly disturbing. The chat logs revealed that the men would often hang out near tourist locations in Aruba, and they would try to find attractive women that they could bring back to their hotel rooms. And if they found someone, the men would often record the women performing sexual acts. The conversations between Yoran and his friends were degrading against women, and they often called themselves pimps.
There were also a lot of people around town that knew Yorin, who said he was known to spike girls' drinks. These claims were never confirmed, but rumors started going around that he and the Kalpo brothers gave Natalie a drug, hoping to record her having sex that night. But instead, she ended up overdosing and dying. But these were nothing more than rumors.
Now by 2008, Natalie's disappearance had taken a backseat to other news stories. But an undercover reporter named Peter DeVries decided to do his own investigative work. He actually reached out to one of Joran's friends named Patrick Vanderham, who agreed to help him in a sting operation. And it actually worked. They ended up putting hidden cameras in Patrick's vehicle and eventually...
he got footage of Joran confessing to what happened that night. On the footage, Joran said that after leaving Carlos and Charlie's, he took Natalie to the beach where she collapsed and started foaming at the mouth. And after a few minutes, Natalie died.
Now like we mentioned earlier, people that knew Yorin said that he was known for spiking girls drinks, so this story seemed pretty likely. And based on the description he gave, where he said Natalie was seizing and foaming at the mouth, experts believe that Yorin likely gave Natalie a date rape drug called GHB. Typically this drug will be slipped into someone's drink
and after consuming it, it will completely incapacitate someone. Then once that person is passed out, they will usually be sexually assaulted. So based on this story, it's believed that Joran roofied Natalie that night, but it didn't work out as planned because once they got to the beach, Natalie collapsed and died.
Now, Yoran claimed that he didn't know what to do, so he called up his friend named Dory, who had a boat, and together they dumped her body out at sea. Yoran even told Patrick, quote, She's dead, of course. I think I'll never get caught for this. I had absolutely no bad feelings about it. I have not lost one night of sleep over it.
I think I am incredibly lucky that she has never been found because if she had been found, I would be in deep shit.
Now, after secretly recording this confession, Patrick took the footage to the police. But once again, there were inconsistencies in his story. For instance, the friend that he said helped him dump her body that night wasn't even in the Netherlands at the time of Natalie's disappearance. So, that part of the story couldn't have been true. But despite that, they had footage of Jorn admitting to disposing of Natalie's body that night. Soon enough, these videos were released to the public.
and Yorin was quick to come forward and deny all of it. He claimed he only said that stuff to impress his friend, and that none of it was true. But even so, dive teams were sent out to search the waters again, and to everyone's surprise, they thought they found something. At the bottom of the ocean, a crab trap was found, and to them, it looked as if there were human remains inside. The search teams even called Dave Holloway and told him they were 99% sure it was Natalie.
But sadly, once they pulled it up out of the water, they had to call him back to tell him that they were mistaken. There was not a body inside of the crab trap. - Once again, the Holloways had gotten their hopes up, but they fully believed Yoren's confession.
While they were convinced that Joran drugged and killed their daughter, they didn't think his friend helped dispose of her. They believed that Joran's father, Paulus, was the one who helped Joran get rid of Natalie's body. But hearing this confession was hard for them. They couldn't help but wonder why Joran just didn't call the police when he saw Natalie collapse that night. He could have gotten her help.
But then again, if he did, the police would have seen that she had been drugged. He just let her die. Now following Joran's confession, everyone was confident that it wouldn't be long until he was finally arrested. After all, they had him on recording, admitting to disposing of Natalie's body. But sadly, the Aruban police still didn't think they had enough to place him under arrest.
So he continued to walk around the free man.
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Wanting to get away from all the media attention, Yoren told his family that he was going to move to a new country where no one knew his name. He decided on Australia, but once he got there, he was actually denied entry. So from there, he decided to move to Thailand. He ended up enrolling in a school there outside of Bangkok, and it seemed as if he got his wish. For a while, he was living a quiet life where nobody knew who he was, but that wouldn't last for long.
Natalie's case started to heat up again when a phone call between him and his father was released to the public, and it did not make Yorin look good. Now, on the phone call, he and his dad are not speaking English, so we're going to reenact it. I'll play the part of Yorin, and Courtney will play Yorin's dad, Paulus. Hi, Dad. How are you? I'm all right. You? I'm sort of fed up. I can't stand it any longer. I do my best, but I don't really know. I feel rotten.
Doran, you have no choice. Yes, I can come forward and end this. But what you have done is pretty bad. Human trafficking is a serious crime.
Now after this audio was released, Yoran reached out to a woman named Greta Van Susteren, who is the host of a popular show called On The Record. Greta had been covering Natalie's case since the beginning, so when she got a call from Yoran telling her that he would confess to everything, she was shocked. But of course, there was a catch.
Yoran wanted $25,000 for his confession. Now Greta and her team were leery, considering Yoran was not the most reliable guy, but they also wanted to hear what he had to say. So they agreed to his offer and flew out to Thailand to set up an interview.
But once they sat down, surprise, surprise, Joran told them yet another version of what happened to Natalie. This time, he said that before Natalie arrived in Aruba, he was approached by a man who told him he wanted a, quote, blonde girl. And if Joran could get him one, the man promised him a hefty payday.
You met a guy in February of three years ago who said he was interested in something. What was he interested in? He was interested in me bringing him a blonde girl. Where did you meet this guy? In the casinos in Aruba. Anything offered in exchange for? Yeah, he offered me money. And what did you say? I said, "Okay, sure." So, what happened the day you met Natalie? Well, the day I met Natalie, I remembered what he said.
And as I was leaving the casino to leave, I went by the Radisson Casino when he was there. I spoke with him and he's like, yeah. So then he's when he's asked me for like, OK, all I want is to, you know, if you bring me a blonde girl, let me know. Give me a call on this number right here.
gave me a phone number and then he said to meet him at the beach by the Marriott if I ever got a girl and he would give me $10,000. So explain what happened. You get Natalie and you head out to the car. Yes, she said. Tell me the whole story. She asks me first, let's go to your house. I went, I go to your house. I want to see your house. I'm like, no.
let's go back to your hotels right next to, it was right next to the other where we had to be anyway. I thought we could go see there, see how it is there. But she didn't want to go back to her own hotel. So then that's when I told the guys, just drop us off by the Marriott. And so then you drove to the Marriott, at least a little bit north of the Marriott, that parking lot area? The parking lot area. Tell me what happened. Then I got out, stepped out of the car, and she was with me.
Went to the beach with her and we were just making out. We never did anything else. Then at first I didn't see anyone there. I didn't know anything. And I was like, okay, whatever, you know, it's not going to happen. Then I saw a guy and he came and he just handed me a bag, grabbed the girl by the arm and he went to the boat that he had in the water. What did Natalie say? She said nothing, nothing until she was on the boat. And then she was like, hey, what's going on? You're not coming with me or I don't know. She wasn't.
Yoran said that after he sold Natalie off, he called Deepak and told him to come pick him up.
But Deepak was busy at the time, so Satish was actually the one who came and got him. He also said that he gave Deepak and Satish $1,000 each for their part in the scheme. Now after this confession, everyone was pretty shocked. But once the interview was over, Joran called Greta Van Susteren and told her that the entire thing he just told them, it was all a lie.
He actually didn't sell Natalie into sex slavery. He made it up. When Natalie's family heard this, they couldn't believe it. Here is this guy, the prime suspect in their daughter's disappearance, who has changed his story yet again. But according to the Daily Beast, Yorin might actually have been involved in sex trafficking.
It's suspected that that's the reason he moved to Thailand in the first place. While there, he was allegedly going by the pseudonym Murphy Jenkins, and he even bragged to people that he had sold a bunch of women into prostitution. But again, you have to take what he says with a grain of salt because he is clearly a pathological liar. But not long after his interview with Greta Van Susteren, Joran and his parents sat down for a Dutch talk show
where they talked about Natalie's case and the host asked him some pretty hard-hitting questions. For a lot of these questions, Yorin didn't have answers. They confronted him about all of his lies. You could tell he was uncomfortable, but Yorin kept his composure. However, once the interview ended and the cameras turned off, Yorin grabbed his glass of red wine and he threw it right in the interviewer's face.
The wine ended up getting into his eyes and it was very painful. But as Joran ran off and threw his tantrum, his parents were the ones who had to profusely apologize for his actions. Anita van der Sloot said, "I'm so sorry. This is awful. I don't know what to say." Then finally, 20 minutes later, Joran came back out and apologized for losing his temper.
But I think this very incident showed everyone the kind of person Joran was. If he got so angry at a reporter asking him questions that he threw wine in his eyes in front of a whole room of people, what could he have done to Natalie? Did she too experience his explosive anger?
One thing everyone knew for sure was that Joran van der Sloot was not a good person. And over time, he started revealing his true colors.
Soon enough, 2008 would turn to 2009 and there were still no real answers. By then, it was widely accepted that the Kalpoe brothers were likely not involved in Nathalie's disappearance and that Joran van der Sloot was solely to blame. And as Nathalie's case grew colder, Joran continued traveling around Asia, blowing all of his money competing in poker tournaments.
He soon found himself in a financial bind So much so, he even agreed to take a polygraph test on a Dutch reality TV show Where he changed his story yet again This time, he said that he and Natalie were doing drugs at a friend's house on the night of her disappearance
And while they were there, she climbed up on the balcony. He said, I think she was really drunk, so she started doing a sort of half-strip tease, like she did on stage at Carl's and Charlie's. I walked to her to dance with her for a bit, and I held her hips, and when I let go, she fell over the balcony. I think she hit the ground with her head first. Yoren said that he and his friend then put her body in a car and then dumped her in a swamp. But keep in mind, he's saying all of this while hooked up to a polygraph machine, and the result indicated that he was lying.
When the host revealed this, he got super angry and stormed off the set. So here we are again with another lie from Joran Vandersloot.
2009 was a rough year for the Holloways. Every time Yoran went to the media with another story about their daughter, it was extremely traumatic. 2009 was also the year that Natalie Holloway would have graduated from college. It had been four years since her disappearance, and sadly, they were no closer to justice.
Dave would later say, "There's been times I'll be honest with you. You look up at the sky at night or get up and you can't sleep. Look at the stars and think, 'God help us, answer some prayers for us.'" But little did he know some of those answers were right around the corner.
In February of 2010, news broke that Joran's father, 57-year-old Paulus van der Sloot, had died of a heart attack. He was at a resort playing tennis when he just suddenly collapsed. Now, since the beginning, a lot of people believed that Paulus was heavily involved in this whole cover-up.
that he gave his son all the comfort and advice he needed to get away with it. And because Paulus ran a law practice and was training to be a judge, Joran thought he was invincible, but now his dad is dead.
He doesn't have that protection anymore. And soon enough, Joran van der Sloot would start to crumble. After his father's death, he quickly packed up all of his things in Thailand and moved back to Aruba to be with his mom. And without his father's income, they were struggling financially. Then, about a month after his dad's death, Joran would place a call to Natalie's mom's attorney in New York.
And what he had to say would shock everyone. Yoran said that he would tell them where Natalie's remains were located under one condition. Before confessing, they would have to wire him $250,000. Now Natalie's family was willing to do anything to find her body. So they quickly wired him a portion of the money. They then flew out to Aruba and from there, Yoran confessed.
He said that on the night in question, Natalie didn't die of a drug overdose. She didn't fall off a balcony. This time, he said they were walking on the beach when Natalie accidentally fell and hit her head on a rock. And soon enough, he realized that Natalie was dead. In a panic, Yoran said he called his dad.
And not long after, Paulus showed up to the beach and he was the one who disposed of her remains. Joran said his dad took Natalie to a home that was under construction near the Aruba Racquet Club and that Paulus put her body into the freshly poured concrete foundation of the home. So from here, authorities went to the location he gave them. But once again, they quickly found out that he lied.
Natalie wasn't there. Now, everyone knew that he was a horrible person before this, but this incident was even low for him. Now, he's blaming everything on his father who had just died. And once again, shortly after his confession, Joran admitted that the story wasn't true. He would tell a reporter from the Telegraph, quote, "'I wanted to get back at Natalie's family,'
Her parents have been making my life tough for five years. When they offered to pay for the girl's location, I thought, why not? But what Yorin did in this scenario, where he asked for money in exchange for answers, is called extortion, which is a serious crime. And if the FBI had been smart, they would have arrested him as soon as it happened. But they didn't. Instead, they actually let him leave the country.
For three whole weeks, Yorin partied in Peru. While he was there, he drank, played a lot of poker, and blew through the Holloway's money. But things were about to get really bad for him. Because in early June 2010, Yorin Vandersloot was arrested. And it wasn't for Natalie Holloway's murder. It wasn't for extortion and wire fraud either. As it turns out, while Yorin was in Peru, he had murdered another young woman.
Weeks earlier, on May 30th, 2010, 58-year-old Ricardo Flores woke up and started his Sunday like normal. He got up, got dressed, and went to his daughter's room to check on her. Except, when he opened the door, she wasn't there. Now, his daughter Stephanie was 21 years old, so she was an adult who could make her own decisions.
But even so, Ricardo was worried when he saw her empty bed. Stephanie had gone out the night before with some friends, but she told him she would be home later that night. So where was she? I'm sure a number of different scenarios ran through his head. Maybe she just changed her mind and spent the night at her friend's house. Or maybe something darker was at play. You see, recently, Stephanie had developed a bit of a gambling problem.
Growing up, her family would often bond by playing poker around the family table. And Stephanie was really good at it. So when she became an adult, she started playing at casinos.
Now, the Flores family was pretty well off. Ricardo was an entrepreneur and a popular race car driver in town, and they had money. Growing up, Stephanie and her siblings all had gone to private schools, and they were privileged enough to enjoy nice vacations together every year. Ricardo always knew that Stephanie would be successful. She was extremely smart and was doing well in college at the University of Lima. Stephanie was studying business administration there while still living at home with her dad.
And recently, Ricardo noticed that she was spending a lot of time at casinos playing poker. Earlier that year, Stephanie had told him that she needed money for a laptop, so he gave it to her. But he was a little apprehensive because he knew it probably wasn't going towards a laptop. And he was right. Stephanie spent a lot of time at casinos around Lima, Peru, and had even talked about wanting to go pro one day.
So on the morning of May 30th, 2010, when Ricardo saw that Stephanie wasn't in her room, he was worried. Even further, he tried calling her several times, but it went straight to voicemail. Now Ricardo knew that she had been at the casinos the night before, so he started calling her friends and family to see if anyone had seen her, but no one had. And he didn't have the number of the friends she was with. So he and his wife anxiously sat at home,
hoping at any moment Stephanie would come walking through the door. But she never did. And by this point, they were frantic. Stephanie wasn't the kind of girl to change plans without notifying her family. So that afternoon, they called the police to report her missing. But the Flores family was at a disadvantage. They knew Stephanie had gone out with some friends from college, but her family didn't know which friends or any of their contact information.
They also didn't know which casino Stephanie had visited. So that Sunday would come and go without any new information on their daughter's whereabouts.
However, the following day, Monday, May 31st, a police officer was driving through a neighborhood when he suddenly spotted Stephanie's car. The area was known for its crime, so her parents were worried when they heard this news, but from what the officers could tell, there were no signs of foul play. Now, from here, her dad Ricardo was finally able to get Stephanie's phone records, and saw that her last known contact was a girl named Carola.
So, he calls her and she is shocked to hear that Stephanie is missing. She said that they had spent that Saturday hanging out, they went to a bar for a few drinks, and at around 2 am, Stephanie dropped her off back at home. Carolla didn't know what happened to Stephanie, but she did tell Ricardo that Stephanie had gone to the Atlantic Casino days before they hung out, and while she was there she had won a lot of money. So maybe she went back there after she dropped Carolla off.
Not knowing what else to do, Ricardo and his family go to the casino to see if they could look through the security footage. And what do you know, there on the tapes is their 21-year-old daughter, Stephanie. But something else they saw just didn't sit right with them. Throughout the night, Stephanie was seen on camera hanging out with a tall white man.
And from what they could tell, they seemed to be getting along, almost like Stephanie knew him. Then hours later, the two are seen walking out of the casino and driving away in Stephanie's car. Now, luckily, the man seen with Stephanie that night had actually won a raffle at the casino. So Ricardo gets them to pull out his ticket and there was his name, 22-year-old Joran Vandersloot.
The Flores family had never heard his name before, and neither had the investigators working Stephanie's missing persons case. At the time, Natalie's case wasn't really talked about in Peru, but as soon as the investigators started looking into him, they all felt sick to their stomachs. Headline after headline showed that Jordan Vandersloot was a dangerous person, and the more they read, the more concerned they became.
Stephanie's case was eerily similar to Natalie's. They had both met Yorin at a casino and based on the security footage, he was clearly a charming man. Both girls were last seen laughing and smiling, completely unaware that the man in front of them was a monster. And soon after learning his name, investigators in Peru would get a break in the case.
Earlier that day, a receptionist at a hotel in town noticed that one of their guests' hotel bill was overdue. So she made her way over to room 301 and used a spare key to open the door. When working at a hotel, the staff deals with this kind of stuff all the time, so she wasn't expecting anything different. But this would not be your average day at work. Upon opening the door, her senses were overwhelmed.
The TV in the room was blaring. There was trash covering the floor. But more than anything, the smell in room 301 was unbearable. After taking a few steps inside, the receptionist would see an image that would forever be ingrained in her mind. It was the decomposed body of a young woman.
Following this, she immediately runs downstairs and calls the police. And when they get there, they learn that the room was booked out to none other than Joran van der Sloot. As the police made their way to room 301, they saw a disturbing scene. There was blood everywhere. And even though the victim was decomposed, it was obvious that it was their missing person, Stephanie Flores.
On the ground, she was covered in blood and her empty wallet was lying next to her. All of her money and credit cards had been stolen. Then next to her body was the murder weapon, which happened to be a bloody tennis racket wrapped in bed sheets. Now, after looking through the hotel security footage, both Yoran and Stephanie are seen at 5.16 a.m. walking towards his hotel room. And Stephanie is smiling,
She's clearly not being held against her will. And it's obvious she doesn't think Yorin is dangerous. So she walks into room 301, never to be seen alive again. And something haunting that investigators couldn't help but notice was the date. Stephanie Flores was murdered in the early hours of May 30th, 2010. Five years to the day that Natalie Holloway was killed.
Four hours after Yorin and Stephanie are seen walking into his hotel room, security footage shows Yorin leaving by himself with all of his bags packed. And on the way out, to buy himself some time, he stops by the front desk and tells the receptionist not to bother his girl. I guess he wanted to make it seem like she was sleeping so they wouldn't go into the room. And it worked.
The hotel wouldn't enter room 301 for another three days, giving Joran plenty of time to flee. In the meantime, investigators had to make the devastating call to Stephanie's dad, Ricardo, and he would later admit that he had a lot of regrets, saying, It was bad because I didn't teach my daughter that there was also evil in the world. But as of now, there was a massive manhunt underway for Joran Vandersloot, and it wouldn't be long until he was captured.
On June 3rd, 2010, he was spotted near the border of Chile, about 700 miles away from Lima, where he killed Stephanie. And it was clear that he had been trying to hide his identity.
Yoren's hair was shaved and dyed orange, but when they brought him into custody, Yoren denied killing Stephanie. In fact, he said that on the night in question, he and Stephanie had been hanging out in his hotel room, when two armed men dressed in police uniforms broke inside and demanded money. He said he was scared for his life and somehow managed to escape, but he didn't have time to save Stephanie. After fleeing his attackers, Yoren said he left the hotel in Stephanie's car, dumped it across town, and then fled the country.
Yet another lie that rolled so easily off of his silver tongue. But the officers had footage of his hotel room, and there were never any armed men that broke inside. And when confronted with this information, Jorn surprisingly decided to come clean. And here's what he said happened.
Right after Yorin received the extortion money from the Holloways, he booked a trip to Peru. Once there, he checked into a hotel room in Lima. And like always, Yorin spent most of his time there gambling.
In late May, he made his way to the Atlantic City Casino where he ran into 21-year-old Stephanie Flores. Like we mentioned, Stephanie was a really talented poker player. In fact, she had just won about $10,000 playing Texas Hold'em. And being the kind of person Joran is, he decided to befriend her. The two would end up playing poker all night long and they seemed to be getting along.
Now, Stephanie told him that she wasn't interested in men, but she did enjoy his company. Yoran was even showing her tips and tricks on how to be better at poker. And then at around 5 a.m., Yoran asked Stephanie if she wanted to go back to his hotel room where they could continue playing poker online. And Stephanie agrees. So at 5.16 a.m., the two are seen walking into his hotel room.
From there, Yoran said that they opened his laptop and started playing poker. But after a while, a message popped up on his computer that read, "I'm going to kill you." When Stephanie saw it, she questioned why someone would send him such a threatening message. And Yoran had to explain to her that he was the suspect in the Natalie Holloway disappearance.
Now Stephanie had never heard of Natalie's case. So she quickly opened Google, typed Natalie's name in and started to read about it. And when she did, she started to panic. Stephanie realized that she was in the room of a killer.
Now this next part is up for debate because it came out of Joran's mouth, but he claimed that it's here where Stephanie began to attack him. He said, quote, "She struck me on the left side of my head with her fist. At that moment, impulsively, with my right elbow, I hit her in the face exactly on top of her nose. She was on the bed when I hit her hard with my right elbow, and I think her head went back and hit the wall.
Then she begins to bleed. I think she started to faint. Next, I get on top of her and with both hands, I began to strangle her, keeping her that way for a minute. After that, I throw her onto the floor, but she keeps breathing. Yoran said that Stephanie wasn't dying. So he takes a tennis racket that was in the room and he beats her with it. He said, quote, "'What am I going to do now? There's blood everywhere.'"
At that moment, I take my shirt off and I put it on her face, pressing on it. I don't remember for how long, but she stops breathing. In this way, I think I caused her death." Yorin also told investigators, "I didn't want to do it. The girl intruded on my private life. She had no right. I lost control of my actions. I remember what I was doing, but not the motive.
It was an impulsive act after receiving a blow to the head. I responded with hitting her. I feared that she would go to the police. I think I wanted to kill her because I wasn't thinking." But after murdering Stephanie, Yoran started planning out his next move. He said he was extremely intoxicated from all the drinks the night before. So he took this moment to have a snack.
While blood poured from Stephanie's head, while her eye dangled from its socket, Yoran ate four sponge cakes in his hotel room. Next, to keep his energy up, he admitted to taking three amphetamine pills before he took a shower and packed his things. Yoran said he considered putting her body into a suitcase and throwing her into the ocean.
But there was blood everywhere. Blood that he would not be able to clean up. So instead, he took all of the money from her wallet and he left her there.
At 9:00 a.m. Yoran was seen on the hotel security footage, leaving room 301. He stopped by the front desk to let them know that his girl was still in the room and didn't want to be bothered, which saved him some more time. From here, he dropped off Stephanie's car in a crime-ridden part of town, and then he found a taxi, driven by a man named William Apercana. According to William, Yoran approached him and said, "Can you take me to Nazca? I'll pay for the whole car."
Now, that city was about 90 miles away, so it would cost around $100, but Joran was happy to pay for it and anxiously told him, let's go now, I'm in a rush. Along the car ride, William started asking Joran questions and would later say, he said he was from Holland, that he came here for a visit with some friends, and that he wanted to go to Nazca because he was going to meet his friends there.
Eventually, they ended up in Nazca and William dropped him off at a bus stop after he paid the $100. But about 30 minutes later, Yorin came back to his vehicle saying that his friends had already left.
And now he wants to be driven to Tacna, near the Peru-Chile border, which is about 10 hours away from where they were. Clearly, William did not want to make this drive, but Jorn pleaded with him and even offered to pay $500. So from here, William calls his brother, Oswaldo, who is also a taxi driver, and he agrees to meet up with them to help with the drive. And soon enough, the three were on their way to Tacna.
Now, normally, they wouldn't have agreed to make this drive, but Jorn was offering them a one-month salary for one day of driving, so they accepted. However, along the drive, they couldn't help but notice how anxious Jorn was. He kept asking things like, where are we? How long do we have?
He would also get annoyed any time they had to stop. But finally, at around 10 am that next morning, they made it to Takna. Yorin got out of the car and started grabbing his things, but when it came time to pay, he ran into some problems. William said: "Yorin went to a bank and he said that there was no way to take his money out. So he tried bargaining with them, saying he would pay them later. But the brothers were angry. They just drove around 17 hours, and Yorin had no money to give them.
So instead, he handed them his watch and left without paying. Yet another example of how Joran van der Sloot is simply a terrible person. After this, Joran would cross the border and it wouldn't be long until he was spotted and captured. That same day, the US would issue a warrant for his arrest.
for the extortion and wire fraud he committed against Natalie's family. But from here, he was extradited back to Peru, where he would finally admit to killing Stephanie Flores. Although it's not hard to believe that there were inconsistencies in his confession. For instance, Yoran claimed that he strangled Natalie to death, but her autopsy revealed that she had been beaten to death
He also claimed he was under the influence of amphetamines and cannabis when he murdered her, but there were no drugs found in his system. He likely added this in there to make it seem like drugs played a part in her murder, when that clearly wasn't the case. But from here, Yoran was put in Lima's Miguel Castro prison to await trial.
When the Holloways learned that Joran Vandersloot was in prison for murdering another woman, there were a lot of mixed emotions. While they were happy he was finally behind bars, they were also angry. Joran should have never been allowed to leave the country. Keep in mind, he left Aruba after he received the extortion money from the Holloways. The FBI should have immediately arrested him for extortion, but they didn't.
and Aruba should have never let him leave the country. But instead, he left for Peru, where he murdered another innocent girl. Now in true fashion, after his arrest, Yorin tried to make a deal where he said he would confess to Natalie Holloway's murderer if they would extradite him back to Aruba. But they declined his offer
Yoren's mother Anita would later speak to the media and say quote: "I believe in karma. I believe that very strongly. I believe that if you do things you shouldn't do, that a lot of shit happens to you. He didn't want to listen to his parents. He didn't want to listen to me this last time. I tried to do my best. I don't think I could have done any more. He's considered an adult right now. He has to do whatever he needs to do.
and that is to tell the truth about what happened." Later that year, in November of 2010, a couple was vacationing in Aruba walking along the beach when they suddenly spotted a human jawbone. They turned it into the police and the single tooth that was attached to it was tested against Natalie Holloway's dental records. However, it was not a match. And after five years of this constant back and forth, the Holloways were exhausted.
So in June of 2011, to help with their grieving journey, her family decided to file a petition to have their daughter declared dead. And a judge signed off on it. So from here, in the eyes of the law, Natalie Holloway was dead. And her killer was awaiting trial for a different murder.
Now, in Stephanie Flores' case, Yorin eventually tried to retract his confession. Then he decided to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. And then finally, in January of 2012, he ultimately pleaded guilty. During his sentencing, his attorney told the judge that Yorin was under a lot of stress on the day he killed Stephanie because it was the five-year anniversary of Natalie's disappearance.
saying, quote, he was pointed at and persecuted. The world had been against him for five years, end quote. And that stress led him to murder another girl, they claimed. Ultimately, the judge ended up sentencing Yorin to 28 years in prison outside of Lima, Peru.
He was also ordered to pay the Flores family $75,000 in reparations. The Flores' lawyer would later say, quote, "This individual is a psychopath, and a psychopath cannot be freed, because if that happens, he becomes a danger to society." Now, a lot of people were not happy with Yoran's sentence. 28 years in prison for taking someone's life seems pretty lenient.
But authorities in the US were still working to have him extradited so he could go to trial for the extortion and wire fraud charges. But while that was being worked out, Yorin stayed in the public eye
It was reported by ABC News that he attempted to sell an on-camera interview for $1 million, and he even posed for a picture with a notorious hitman. Then in 2014, Yoran married a 24-year-old Peruvian woman named Lady Figuera. The two met when she came to prison to visit a relative of hers, and they fell in love.
She would later say that Joran is no monster, that he is gentle, sensitive, and kind. Somehow, the two were even able to get pregnant and in 2014 his wife gave birth to a little girl. And it makes you wonder, after the birth of his daughter, did Joran think back to the way he treated women? Did he put himself in the Holloway shoes? Probably not.
But having a kid is supposed to change your perspective. And I'm sure he would never want his daughter to cross paths with someone like him.
While in prison, Yoren continued to get himself into trouble. He trafficked cocaine to prisoners, and he even threatened to murder the warden. It's also reported that Yoren was able to have a cell phone, and he did a lot of arts and crafts. He could play online poker, and he even used drugs from time to time. So it really didn't seem like he had it all that bad. His wife also came forward and said that Yoren had found God while in prison, and he's working to make up for his past sins.
But a part of being a Christian is confessing your sins. And there was still one sin that Joran van der Sloot wouldn't confess to. By 2016, Natalie Holloway had been missing for 11 years. 11 whole years of anxiety, guilt, unrest, and an unbelievable amount of grief for her family. So that year, knowing they wouldn't get answers from Joran himself,
Dave Holloway and a private investigator named TJ Ward decided to go over everything they had in Natalie's case. And while they were doing this, they would receive a phone call that they never expected. The call was from a man named Gabriel, and he said he had some huge information in Natalie's case. Now Dave was excited.
11 years in, leads were few and far between, but he didn't want to get his hopes up just yet. So he decided to meet Gabriel in Florida to see what he had to say. Interestingly enough, a production company heard about this lead in Natalie's case, and they decided to film this entire process, which would later be made into a six-part documentary called "The Disappearance of Natalie Holloway."
But Dave Holloway sat face to face with Gabriel, and you could tell he seemed genuine. His story seemed truthful. On the series, Gabriel told Dave that one day, he and his old roommate named John Ludwig were just hanging out watching TV, when all of a sudden John turns to him and says, "'You know, I want to get something off my chest.'"
Gabriel said he didn't know what to expect, but the next thing he knows, John admits that he helped dispose of Natalie Holloway's body, and Gabriel was confident that he was telling the truth. He agreed to set up hidden cameras for the show so he could try to get a recording of John confessing to this. So that's exactly what they did.
In 2016, Gabriel and John Ludwig met up and on the hidden video, he confessed to everything. And here's what he had to say. John Ludwig was an American who spent a lot of time in Aruba because he had family there. And during one of his days in 2010, he ran into Joran van der Sloot and the two hit it off.
Soon enough, they were hanging out every day, partying and doing drugs together. And eventually, they considered each other best friends. And best friends are supposed to tell each other everything. Now, John was well aware of Natalie Holloway's story. So one day, he decided to ask Joran about it. And to his surprise, Joran actually confesses.
According to John, Yoran alluded to the fact that he gave Natalie GHB that night, which is a date rape drug. His plan was to take her to the beach so he could take advantage of her. So the Kalpo brothers dropped them off near the Marriott Hotel, and from there, he and Natalie took the sidewalk down to the beach. By that point, Natalie was very intoxicated, so Yoran started to kiss her.
But as he did, Natalie collapsed and began foaming at the mouth. The mix of alcohol and GHB were apparently sending her into convulsions, and Joran started to panic. He also said he didn't do anything to help her. He didn't call for help, turn her on her side, or anything. And instead, he just watched her die.
John Ludwig said that the next thing Joran did was call his dad Paulus for help. And soon enough, Paulus came to the beach with a burlap sack. From there, they both stuffed Natalie into the sack and put her into the back of his car. And then they drove to this desert national park. Joran told John that he and his father dug a hole, threw her in, covered her up, and then put a cactus on top of the dirt to conceal it.
And before leaving, Paulus told his son, quote, "'Don't you ever tell anyone about this.'"
According to John Ludwig's story, Jorn said that Natalie was "in the ground" within two hours of her death. And interestingly enough, there was actually someone who came forward back in 2005, just days after Natalie disappeared, claiming that they saw Paulus leaving the National Park in Aruba in the middle of the night. And the person said they remembered thinking, "What is Paul Vandersloot doing out here at 4am?" So there seemed to be some validity to this story. But that's not all John Ludwig had to say.
John claimed that as Joran was confessing to all of this, he could tell that Joran was anxious. He even turned to him and said, I'm worried they're going to find her body. According to him, the search teams were getting close and he knew they wouldn't give up until she was found. So Joran asks his best friend John for help. He allegedly told him, quote, I'll pay you $1,500 if you go and dig the body up.
I'm gonna take you tomorrow and I'll show you exactly where her body is at." And according to John, that's exactly what they did. Yoren drives him out to the national park and points to a cactus. "She's under there," he says. So John started digging. He admitted that about three feet into the ground, he saw the burlap sack. And as he uncovered it, he was hit with the smell of decomposition.
John said that by that point, Natalie was mostly all bones, but the bones were brown and moldy. And there was about two inches of black lard at the bottom of the sack. The decomposition was so bad, it was hard to tell if it was Natalie, but he did see her beautiful long blonde hair.
John said that he and Yoran started crushing her bones so that it wouldn't look like human bones. They also burned her skull in a fire pit to destroy her hair. Then from there, John Ludwig brought her remains to a crematorium where he told a worker he needed to cremate his dog. And for $200, the worker let him. Then once that was completed, he and Yoran dumped Natalie's ashes out at sea.
Now, keep in mind, this is the story that John Ludwig tells Gabriel, his old roommate. But this entire thing was caught on tape. So the Holloway family's private investigator, T.J. Ward, decides to interview John for this documentary. And again, John Ludwig repeats the same story. His passport also confirms that John was in Aruba at the time that he said all this happened.
And to Dave Holloway, this was the most promising lead they had since he found out his daughter disappeared. For the first time in a long time, he had hope. So Dave, TJ Ward, the production crew, and a number of other investigators went out to the alleged location where she was buried. And they actually did find four bones. However, only one of the four bones was human.
But maybe, if John's story was true, the bone was Natalie's. So they tested it, and unfortunately, it wasn't a match. The forensic investigator, Jason Kowalski, would later say, "What we know about the bone today is that it is a single individual whom we believe there is a Caucasian European ethnicity attached, but it's not Natalie." But in a huge twist, John Ludwig would later admit that those bones were not Natalie's.
He said that he actually found those bones at his aunt's house, went and buried them in the national park, and then led investigators to this burial site, knowing they wouldn't be Natalie's bones. In fact, all four bones were actually from a wild boar. But when investigators tested them, one of the bones had human mitochondrial DNA on it, likely from John Ludwig touching all over it.
Now keep in mind, they were filming all of this for this huge true crime documentary. And allegedly, the producers knew that all four bones were animal bones. But for entertainment purposes, they decided to go forward with filming this, acting like one of the bones could be Natalie's, even though they knew it wouldn't be. And the worst part of all,
is that they actually called up Natalie's mom, Beth, asking her to give her DNA sample. They told Beth that they found a human bone out in the desert and that it might be Natalie's. So hearing this, Beth is obviously excited. This lead is huge. So she sends over her DNA swab only to later find out that they allegedly knew it wasn't a human bone the entire time.
Nalbeth would later sue Oxygen Media for $10 million in compensation and $25 million in punitive damages. She claimed that the documentary, quote,
was not a true crime documentary or a legitimate investigation whatsoever. Instead, Mrs. Holloway contends that it was scripted and outrageous fiction produced and published at the expense of her severe emotional distress." Now, I was not able to find out exactly what happened with this lawsuit, but Beth Holloway was very disappointed by the show's deception.
She also found out that they paid John Ludwig to participate in the show and he was a heroin addict at the time. So who knows if anything he had to say was actually true. And John Ludwig is a very controversial character in this story. Before all of this, around the time Yoran killed Stephanie Flores, he had even gone on the Nancy Grace Show to talk about his friend.
When Nancy Grace asked him if he was surprised Yoran pled guilty to Stephanie's murder, John responded with, quote, "Well, he didn't really have a choice in this situation. He obviously murdered her, but we're just hoping for the best. Hopefully he gets out in 10 years or less," end quote. So there's that.
But then, about a month after Beth filed her lawsuit against Oxygen, John Ludwig was stabbed to death. He had been romantically involved with this girl, but she had apparently cut things off. And then one day, he decided he was going to try and kidnap her. It was early in the morning when this girl was going to get in her car, when suddenly John appeared out of nowhere, holding a knife.
He pressed the knife against her and tried to force her into her car, but she fought back. The girl was somehow able to get the knife from him and in self-defense, she killed him. The police would later announce that she would not be facing any charges.
But as you can see, Natalie's case has so many twists and turns. It's one of the most mind-boggling cases in all of true crime because everyone knows who killed her. But for whatever reason, Joran van der Sloot continued to slip through the cracks. Now, for her family, they started coming to terms with the fact that Joran might not ever go to jail for his part in Natalie's disappearance. But they at least wanted to see him punished for the extortion and wire fraud, which both carried 20-year sentences.
Unfortunately, Peru announced that he wouldn't be extradited to the United States until his sentence there was completed, which would be in 2038. So the Holloways started preparing themselves for this. By then, Natalie will have been gone for 33 years, and her parents will be a lot older. But at least some justice is better than none.
However, to everyone's surprise, Mobius and Peru worked together and somehow they were able to convince Peru's government to extradite him early. So the Holloways wouldn't have to wait any longer.
Just last year in 2023, Joran van der Sloot was finally on a plane to the United States to face his charges, and he ended up taking a plea agreement. In exchange for 20 years in prison, Joran would provide full, complete, accurate, and truthful information regarding Natalie Holloway's disappearance. So, on October 3rd, 2023, after 18 years, Joran sat down with investigators,
and finally told the truth about the night of may 30th 2005.
Yoran said that that night, after leaving Carlos and Charlie's, Deepak and Satish dropped him and Natalie off at the beach near the fisherman's hut, and from there the brothers went home, having no other involvement. But as Yoran and Natalie were walking through the sand, they decided to lie down and enjoy the last little bit of the night. The Holiday Inn, which was the hotel Natalie was staying at,
was just down the beach, about three hotels over. So they were close. And I'm sure in Natalie's mind, she was just soaking up her last night with this cute boy she met. However, Joran's thoughts were much darker. The reason he brought Natalie out to the beach was because he wanted to sleep with her.
So as they lay there, he leans over and kisses her. And according to him, Natalie kisses him back. He then starts to feel her up, touching her all over. And Natalie tenses up. According to her friends and family, she had never had sex before. She had never even really had a boyfriend.
So she definitely didn't want her first time being with a stranger. So she tells Joran to stop, but he doesn't listen. He continues to touch Natalie's body all over despite her pleas. And Natalie realized she was in danger because as he's assaulting her, she knees him in the crotch. Joran said that this angered him so much so he stood up and with all of his might,
he kicked Natalie right in the face. The force behind the kick was so strong, Natalie flew backwards, unconscious. Yoran said that he then noticed a cinder block in the sand close by, so he picks it up. He then stands over Natalie's body, lifts it above his head, and then slams it down onto her face.
Joran said afterwards he looked at Natalie and her face was completely caved in. Even in the dark, it was clear she was dead. From there, Joran begins to panic. He said he then started dragging Natalie towards the sea and he ended up stopping when the water was about knee level. Then from there, he pushed her body out into the ocean.
Yoran went on to say that he had no help from anyone else. Not his dad, not the Kalpo brothers, just him. But here is Yoran confessing in his own words. She asked to go back to her hotel, but I was just trying to get dropped off a little bit further away from her hotel so we could walk back to her hotel and I might still get a chance to be with her. That's what I was hoping for. Okay. So what happens?
Yeah, Deepak drops me off at a place a little right of the Marriott Hotel known as the Fisherman's Huts. This place is not so far from, you know, the next hotel is the Marriott and the next hotel after that is another Marriott, which is a timeshare and then it's the Holiday Inn. We walk along the beach. I'm a dude.
Deepak and Satish get out, come with you. What happens? - Deepak and Satish leave. They leave, they go back to their home. I assume they go back to their home. They get in their car and they leave. I'm actually with Natalie walking along the beach. I find a space before we get to the Marriott Hotel where I lay her down, we lay down together in the sand.
and we start kissing each other. I get her to kiss me again, we start kissing each other. And I start fielding her up again and she tells me no. She tells me she doesn't want me to field her up. I insist, I keep fielding her up either way. And she knees me, she ends up kneeing me in the crotch. When she knees me in the crotch, I get up.
on the beach and I kick her extremely hard in the face. She's laying down unconscious, possibly even dead, but definitely unconscious. And I see right next to her there's a huge cinder block laying on the beach. When you say cinder block, looking at the walls of this place, is it like those? Exact same cinder blocks.
I see a huge cinder block laying on the beach. I take this and I smash her head in with it completely. Her face basically collapses in. Even though it's dark, I can see her face has collapsed in. Afterwards, I don't exactly know what... I'm scared. I don't know what to do.
Now there are a lot of people out there that question his confession.
For instance, if Joran only went knee level and then pushed her body out to sea, how would she not wash ashore? Many people suspect that Joran actually did call someone for help, that someone he knew came out to that beach and helped dispose of her. But Joran denies this. He says he acted alone.
It's hard to believe anything he says when he's told like 20 different stories about what happened that night. But he did take a polygraph explaining all of this and he apparently passed. He's also speaking with the FBI during this confession as part of a plea agreement, so it would be incredibly stupid for him to lie this time.
But when you think back to Joran van der Sloe over the years and all of the different stories he told, they were all placing the blame elsewhere. In the first one, Natalie was too drunk and started seizing on the beach. In that story, it was her fault. Then he said she fell off the balcony. Then there's the story of him selling her into sex trafficking, which still made him look bad, but he wasn't the mastermind.
All of these stories he told over the years, placing blame on others, was to cover up the truth. The truth that Joran van der Sloot killed Natalie because she stood up for herself. Joran sexually assaulted her. Natalie told him no, and he didn't like to be told no. So he bashed her head in with a cinder block. The story he hid for nearly 20 years. But now, Natalie's family knows the truth.
For years, they grappled with what could have happened to her, imagining endless horrible scenarios in their head. But now that they finally have answers, they can stop all of their wondering and start their grieving. Following Yoran's confession, on October 18th, Beth Holloway stood outside the courthouse with her son Matt and told reporters, it's over.
I can tell you with certainty that after 18 years, Natalie's case, it's solved. As far as I'm concerned, it's over. It's over. Yaron VanderSloot is no longer the suspect in my daughter's murder. He is the killer. In the course of his felony prosecution, here for extortion and wire fraud indictment, he gave a proffer in which he finally confessed that he killed Natalie. He described when and how he killed her.
He said that after killing her on the beach in Aruba, he put her into the water and that was the last that he ever saw her. That was all verified by a comprehensive and conductive conclusive polygraph test. Even with this confession though, he can't be tried here for Natalie's murder. But I'm satisfied knowing that he did it. He did it alone and he disposed of her alone.
I won't give you the details of his brutal confession. Those will be forthcoming when the proffer is made public. You will also have details of the plea agreement which was reached, his sentence of extortion, and the wire fraud will run concurrently with a sentence in Peru for killing Stephanie Flores. And that's fine with me. Thanks to a lot of very smart and dedicated people here, I got the answer I've been searching for for the past 18 years.
Your Ron Vander Slot's confession means we have finally reached the end of our never-ending nightmare. And for me, reaching the end of the nightmare, being over is better than closure. It's been 18 years since Natalie disappeared, and Natalie would be 36 years old today. I still miss her every day. It's been a very long and painful journey, but we finally got the answers we've been searching for for all these years.
We finally, today, we got justice for Natalie. So thank you all so very much and being supportive of us in our long 18-year journey. Thank you.
Ultimately, Joran van der Sloot pleaded guilty to the two charges of wire fraud and extortion, and because of the plea agreement, he was only sentenced to 20 years for the crimes. This sentence was to run concurrently with his time in Peru. But at the hearing, Beth Holloway stood in front of him and said, "You are a killer. I want you to remember that every time that jail door slams." Joran would also say, "I would like the chance to apologize to the Holloway family, to my own family.
I am no longer the person I was back then. And from there, Yorin was sent back to Peru, where he will serve out the remainder of his sentence. He will not be extradited back to the United States unless he's paroled early in Peru.
Another heartbreaking part of this case is that in a few decades, Joran van der Sloot might be a free man walking the streets wherever he chooses to go after being released from prison. And that's because he likely cannot be charged with Natalie's murder anymore. You see the island of Aruba has a 12 year statute of limitations for homicide, which is absolutely crazy.
Now, government officials had said they will consider it, but it's unlikely. Since 2017, Yorin hasn't had to worry about getting charged with her murder because he made it through those 12 years without getting caught. Dave Holloway would later say, quote, "'Despite everything he has done to us, he is not sorry for what he did.'"
He expresses no remorse, regret for committing the horrific crime that violently ended Natalie's life and irreparably changed the trajectory of all of ours. He is evil personified. And I'd have to agree. For just a second, I want to remind you of something Joran said at the beginning of this episode.
When his old friend Patrick participated in that sting operation, he said that Natalie died of a drug overdose and that he and his friend dumped her body at sea. Then after admitting that, he said, quote, she is dead, of course. I think I'll never get caught for this. I had absolutely no bad feelings about it.
I have not lost one night of sleep over it. I think that I am incredibly lucky that she has never been found, because if she had been found, I would be in deep shit." And I think that quote alone shows exactly the kind of person Joran van der Sloot is. He never lost any sleep over Natalie's murder. Instead, he found gratitude that her body was never found. Joran destroyed so many lives throughout this story.
and he truly thought he was invincible. That anything he wanted in this world was owed to him, and if he didn't get what he wanted, he would make it happen no matter what. After learning of Natalie's brutal death, it makes you wonder if Stephanie Flores experienced a similar fate. Like Natalie, she too was beaten to death
five years to the day of Natalie's murder. So did she also reject his sexual advances? But we do know that Joran van der Sloot is right where he belongs. He described his life in prison as hell, and he recently told his wife that his experience there was worse than Guantanamo Bay, which is a prison known for its abuse.
Yorin's wife also told the media that he had been jumped and stabbed twice by other inmates. So it's safe to say that he's getting the karma he deserves. But to wrap this story up, it's important to mention that Natalie Holloway's body was never found. In cases like these, you always want to have an ending like that.
But that's not always how it goes. If Joran's story is true, it's believed that Natalie's remains were either swept out to sea or consumed by wildlife, which is heartbreaking for her family.
They don't have a grave to go visit. They never got to sit by her lifeless body and kiss her goodbye. And like we mentioned in the beginning of this two-part series, losing a loved one and never finding them is a pain that can't even be put into words. But at the end of the day, the Holloways are grateful for what they do have. For a while, they thought they would never get answers.
But after 20 years, they finally do. Beth said that those answers hurt, saying, quote, it's just blistering to your soul. It hurts so deeply. But even as hard as it is to hear, it's still not as torturous as the not knowing. It was time for me to know, end quote.
Dave Holloway said that when Natalie disappeared, she became everyone's child. He added, quote, "'Today and every day, please hug your children in honor and loving memory of our daughter, Natalie Ann Holloway.'"
Hey, everybody. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Murder in America. What a crazy story. Crazy that if we would have done this episode when we started our podcast, we wouldn't have the full story that we do now. So I'm glad that we waited to tell this story. And yeah, the Murdered American series is giving us an opportunity to really travel around the world and tell so many different stories. And Courtney and I both hope that you guys are enjoying the episodes as much as we are enjoying making them.
I want to give a shout out to some of our new patrons this week. Giovanni Morales, Brandon Crawford, Izzy, Margaret Allen, Adrienne Bailey, Brian Weaver, Margarita Leone, Dana Ladani, Maddie Holliman, Esther Thompson, Ashley Moore, Cody Smithy, Carmen Woolley, Elle, Jennifer Jones, Kelly B, Shannon Ward, Michael Anthony, Willie Valencia. Oh my God. And so many more.
So if you don't know what Patreon is for $5 a month, you get access to all of our main feed episodes, early and ad free for $10 a month, you get early ad free access plus two full length bonus episodes of the show. And for $20 a month, you get a bonus episode of murder in America every single week, along with the early ad free access. So if you love the show, you want to help support Courtney and I's work and
definitely head to patreon.com search up murder in america if you're on spotify you should be able to access it right there from the feed as well also follow us on instagram at murder in america to see photos from every case that we cover here on the show yeah guys we have some more incredible murdered americans episodes coming soon thank you all for listening have a great rest of your weekend we have some very important news coming soon and yeah i'll catch you on the next one
Hello, I'm Shelby Scott, the host of Scare You to Sleep, a podcast where I tell you spooky bedtime stories full of creepy sound effects and music that is soothing yet unsettling to help immerse you into a world of horror. This is a show for those of us who have realized horror is a world of horror.
Horror can be a strange, but relaxing escape from reality. Speaking of escapes, sometimes I lead you through guided nightmares, like a guided meditation, but instead of flowery meadows, I take you on a journey through your own personal nightmare.
So come get lost in the terror with me. Listen to Scare You to Sleep wherever you listen to podcasts or find us online at bloody.fm. Sweet screams.
Hey there. Are you in need of a new weekly fix of horror gaming discussions? Then look no further than Safe Room, Bloody FM's horror video gaming podcast. I'm your host, Jay Krieger. And I am the other one, Neil Bowen. And every week, Neil, myself, and the occasional guest get together to chat about classic and contemporary horror games and the elements that make them a standout amongst the hordes of horror games being released seemingly every day now.
In addition to celebrating anniversaries and new releases, we also interview influential horror developers such as Amnesia the Bunker's creative lead, Frederick Olson, and even the maestro of lo-fi horror, Erdorf, the developer behind the Faith trilogy. And finally, on Thursdays, we release episodes of Horror Bytes, our bite-sized indie horror showcase in which Neil and I share a game that we discovered on Itch.io from an up-and-coming developer.
So if this sounds like the podcast for you, please consider checking out Safe Room on your preferred podcast platform, and be sure to give us a follow on Twitter, at Safe Room Pod, for show updates. Welcome to the All 80s Movies Podcast. I'm Bill. And I'm Jason. And this is the podcast where we talk about the blockbusters, the flops, and everything in between from one of the freshest decades for movies, the 1980s. So whether you're a brain, a jock,
a valley girl, or a Jedi, we've got some 80s classics for you. Do these movies stand the test of time? Are we discovering something new? Is there an 80s movie we are finally watching for the first time? Join us each week as we dive into the cinematic nostalgia that inspired and influenced a generation. From the hits to the cult classics, we'll discuss our earliest memories, favorite scenes, fun facts, and our not-so-favorite movie moments, too. You can find the All 80s Movies Podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Please follow and happy listening.
