Natalee Holloway’s Mother Confronted Killer Before His Confession Revisited in Netflix Doc

WHO:

NY Post - Natalee Holloway was an 18-year-old from Alabama who vanished during a graduation trip to Aruba; her mother, Beth Holloway, searched for answers.

Biography: Historical and Celebrity Profiles - Joran van der Sloot was a Dutch national who was 17 when Holloway disappeared. He was born in Arnhem, Netherlands, to judge Paulus van der Sloot and art teacher Anita van der Sloot.

Biography: Historical and Celebrity Profiles - Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and his brother Satish Kalpoe, 18, left a bar with Holloway and van der Sloot.

Oxygen Official Site - Stephany Flores Ramírez was a 21-year-old Peruvian business student and the daughter of a well-known businessman. Van der Sloot later married Leidy Figueroa; they had a daughter.

NY Post - Beth Holloway, Natalee’s friends, and an FBI agent speak about the disappearance in Netflix’s three-part docuseries *Taken: Natalee Holloway*, directed by Dani Sloane and Matthew Galkin.

WHAT:

Biography: Historical and Celebrity Profiles - Van der Sloot confessed to killing Holloway and pleaded guilty to extortion and wire fraud. His account said Holloway rejected his advances, kneed him in the crotch, and he kicked her in the face, struck her head with a cinder block, and put her body in the ocean.

Biography: Historical and Celebrity Profiles - Van der Sloot said, “When she knees me in the crotch I get up on the beach and I kick her, extremely hard, in the face.” He added, “Even though it’s dark I can see her face is collapsed.”

Oxygen Official Site - Van der Sloot was convicted of Flores’s murder and sentenced to 28 years in prison; he was also ordered to pay her family $75,000.

Biography: Historical and Celebrity Profiles - Van der Sloot received an additional 18 years and four months for trafficking cocaine in prison. His U.S. sentence was 20 years, concurrent with his Peruvian sentence.

Biography: Historical and Celebrity Profiles - Van der Sloot has never been charged with Holloway’s murder. Beth Holloway told him in court, “You are a killer.”

WHERE:

Biography: Historical and Celebrity Profiles - Holloway was last seen leaving Carlos ’n Charlie’s in Oranjestad, Aruba. Van der Sloot is held at Challapalca prison in southern Peru.

Oxygen Official Site - Van der Sloot was returned to Peru after appearing in Alabama on U.S. extortion and wire-fraud charges.

WHEN:

Biography: Historical and Celebrity Profiles - The docuseries recounts Holloway’s disappearance and van der Sloot’s confession; the article reports that his projected release is in 2045.

Biography: Historical and Celebrity Profiles - Van der Sloot married Figueroa in 2014; their daughter was born that September.

WHY:

Biography: Historical and Celebrity Profiles - U.S. prosecutors charged van der Sloot with extortion and wire fraud after he offered Holloway’s family information about her body for $250,000 and supplied false information.

Oxygen Official Site - Van der Sloot’s plea deal required him to confess to Holloway’s killing in exchange for a 20-year U.S. sentence concurrent with his Peruvian sentence.

HOW:

Biography: Historical and Celebrity Profiles - The FBI recorded the extortion exchange. Beth Holloway’s attorney gave van der Sloot $10,000 in cash in Aruba, and another $15,000 went to his bank account; an earlier $100 test payment brought the total to $25,100.

Biography: Historical and Celebrity Profiles - A hotel worker found Flores’s body in van der Sloot’s hotel room; an autopsy found a fractured skull and broken neck.

(UPDATED November 5, 2026 07:01 UTC)

Joran van der Sloot confessed to killing Natalee Holloway, who vanished in Aruba at eighteen. He pleaded guilty to extorting her family, falsely offering information about her body. Van der Sloot was convicted of killing Stephany Flores and remains imprisoned in Peru.