When did Natalee Holloway go missing?
ON MAY 30, 2005, 18-year-old Natalee Holloway went missing while on a class trip in Aruba.
After 18 years of endless dead ends, police have narrowed their search to one main suspect; here's everything we know about her case.
When did Natalee Holloway go missing?
Natalee Holloway had graduated from high school in 2005 when she joined her classmates on a trip to Aruba only days later.
But when her classmates showed up at the airport to travel home on May 30, Natalee was nowhere to be found.
The last time she was seen alive was as she left a nightclub the night before she was scheduled to return home to Alabama.
Her disappearance prompted an intensive search of Aruba, and Natalee's parents, Beth and Dave, flew out to find their daughter.
"It was June 1, 2005, our first day in Aruba, my daughter was missing and a detective was telling us to go to a local bar and have a beer," Dave recalled in his 2006 book, Aruba: The Tragic Untold Story of Natalee Holloway and Corruption in Paradise.
However, when Natalee's case received media attention, Dave said the investigation seemed to pick up.
"If it hadn't been for the media and some Americans taking an interest, seeing it on TV…I believe [Aruban authorities] had intentions to investigate whatever, [then tell us to] go back home.
"I know in a couple of weeks it'll have been a situation where they'd call, [we'd ask] 'Anything going on?' 'No.' And it's forgotten about," Dave told in 2021.
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What have the police done to find Natalee Holloway?
In 2005, Aruban authorities received a tip that Joran Van der Sloot was one of the last people to have seen Natalee alive and suspected him of having murdered her.
He was never charged with killing Natalee but was investigated for five years until he was sentenced to 28 years in prison for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in Peru.
Flores was killed five years to the day that Natalee had disappeared without a trace.
Brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe were briefly detained in 2005 in connection to Natalee's disappearance but insisted the last time they saw Natalee, she was alive.
They pointed to Van der Sloot who they claimed to have dropped Natalee off at her hotel at about 2 am on May 30, but later retracted their story and said they dropped off Van der Sloot as well.
In 2008, Dave Holloway received a message from someone, identifying himself as Marcos, who claimed to know where Natalee's body was hidden.
He told Dave that drug runners had allegedly been paid to dispose of Natalee's body in the sea, but instead took her remains to Nicaragua.
However, although Marcos offered to take Dave to the area where she was hidden, instead, he disappeared.
Nearly eight years later, in 2016, Dave received a message from someone who identified himself as Gabriel and said he knew what happened to Natalee.
"I thought, okay, this may be a new lead… Let's go on and see if we can develop it. That turned into a situation a little bit bigger than what I'd anticipated," Dave told E! News.
Gabriel brought Dave and Private Investigator T.J. Ward to his roommate John Ludwick, who claimed that Van der Sloot had paid him $1,500 to destroy Natalee's remains.
However, Aruban Police Chief Dolfi Richardson found Ludwick's story inconsistent.
Richardson said: "What he was saying was not possible. There were so many holes we could shoot in his story, we knew that he was not really a credible witness."
After continuous dead ends, Natalee was declared legally dead by a judge in January 2012.
As of May 30, 2023, it has been 18 years to date that Holloway has been missing.
What has Joran van der Sloot said about Natalee Holloway's disappearance?
Van der Sloot is currently serving 28 years in a Peru prison for the murder of Stephany Flores in 2010.
He pleaded guilty claiming he was allegedly suffering from "extreme psychological trauma" from the investigation into Natalee's disappearance.
He reportedly killed Flores in a moment of rage when he found her on his laptop and said she discovered his connection to Natalee, according to .
Police previously questioned Van der Sloot about Natalee, but he continued to maintain his innocence, saying he had left Natalee on the beach.
"The last time I saw her, she was sitting on the sand by the ocean," he said in a 2006 interview on .
However, in an affidavit obtained by , Van der Sloot "went on to admit that he had been with Natalee on the night of May 29/30, 2005, and that he had thrown her to the ground after she had attempted to stop him from leaving her.
"Van der Sloot claimed that when she fell down, she hit her head on a rock and died as a result of the impact."
He went on to admit that his father allegedly helped him dispose of the body and went to take the police to where the body was allegedly located to be, however, they found nothing.
Police have yet to find substantial evidence linking Van der Sloot to Natalee's disappearance, and he is set to be released from prison in 2038.
On Wednesday, May 10, 2023, Peru's government allowed the extradition of Van der Sloot to the US in correlation to the murder of Holloway.
He faced a trial on fraud charges after extorting money from Natalee Holloway's family for information on her disappearance.
According to an FBI agent, Van der Sloot contacted Holloway's mother promising to disclose the location of her daughter's body in exchange for $25,000.
After receiving the money, Van der Sloot led Holloway's family to a false location.
Though he was transferred to the US to face trial, the transfer is only temporary, and after judicial proceedings are concluded, Van der Sloot will return to Peru.
His attorney Maximo Altez told : "I am going to challenge that resolution. I am going to oppose it since he has the right to a defense."
Peru's ambassador, Gustavo Meza-Cuadra hopes this action will grant peace to the Holloways.
Meza-Cuadra said in a statement: "We hope that this action will enable a process that will help to bring peace to Mrs. Holloway and to her family, who are grieving in the same way that the Flores family in Peru is grieving for the loss of their daughter, Stephany."
On the 18th anniversary of Holloway's disappearance, Van der Sloot's lawyer, Maximo Altez told he had been "beaten severely" by prisoners.
Altez revealed: "It was a fight between prisoners. I don't know who assaulted Joran."
According to the complaint filed by Altez, his lawyer has requested better security for him.
Altez : ";Given Joran van der Sloot’s public profile, there is legitimate concern regarding his safety inside the prison.
"It is necessary to ensure that he is not a victim of violence, assaults or any form of abuse by other inmates.";
On June 6, 2023, Joran van der Sloot pleaded not guilty to extorting Holloway's family after being extradited from Peru. He will remain in US custody during his federal trial.
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According to , Joran van der Sloot confessed to killing Natalee Holloway. He recounted the details of the murder to an Alabama federal judge on October 3, 2023.
Then on October 18, 2023, he pleaded guilty to the federal charges of fraud and extortion. As part of his plea deal, he agreed to disclose everything he knows about the Holloway disappearance.