The chief suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway has admitted he beat the young Alabama woman to death on a beach in Aruba after she refused his advances, then dumped her body into the sea. (Oct.18) (AP video by Stephen Smith)Beth Holloway speaks to media after the appearance of Joran van der Sloot outside the Hugo L. Black Federal Courthouse Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023, in Birmingham, Ala.
Natalee Holloway, 18, went missing during a high school graduation trip to Aruba with classmates. She was last seen May 30, 2005, leaving a bar with van der Sloot, a Dutch citizen. The disappearance quickly became an international story.— to the United States to face trial on federal charges that he tried to extort money from Holloway’s mother to reveal the location of her daughter’s body.
“Dave has always been interested in getting the truth. I’d say initially everybody was skeptical if he would be that forthcoming or just back out at the last minute. We decided we would engage in the process and take it one step at a time,” White said. headtopics.com
“Going into that room that day, both parties kind of went in with a mutual understanding of why we were there and what we hoped to accomplish,” an FBI official toldWhite said agents were “very, very methodical” in their questioning. “It became apparent they had utilized every resource of the Bureau,” White said.
“It’s just blistering to your soul, and it hurts so deeply,” Beth Holloway told The Associated Press earlier this month of listening to the account. “But you know that you’re there in a functionality role because this is the moment where I’ve been searching for for 18 years. Even as hard as it is to hear, it still not as torturous as the not knowing. It was time for me to know.” headtopics.com