Joran van der Sloot has confessed to murdering Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old American tourist who famously vanished during a high school graduation trip to Aruba in 2005.
Van der Sloot, 36, admitted to bludgeoning Holloway to death on a remote beach after she rejected his advances.
The confession came in a proffer letter. In it, the Dutch national graphically described murdering Holloway the night they met. The letter came as part of an agreement with prosecutors, where van der Sloot pleaded guilty to extorting Holloway's mother in exchange for not being charged with Holloway's murder. (RELATED: Illegal Immigrant And Suspected Serial Killer Murdered)
Wednesday's revelation was the first time details of Holloway's disappearance became publicly known.
As part of a plea agreement, Mr. van der Sloot pleaded guilty on Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in Birmingham to charges that he had tried to extort Ms. Holloway's mother, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In court, Judge Anna M. Manasco said that as part of the sentencing decision, Mr. van der Sloot had confessed to killing Ms. Holloway and disposing of her remains, The Associated Press reported.
Despite being the prime suspect in Holloway's murder, van der Sloot initially escaped justice. Years later, he reached out to attorneys for the Holloway family. Van der Sloot promised to reveal the location of Holloway's body in exchange for $250,000.
Three months later, a federal grand jury in Alabama indicted him on extortion and wire fraud charges.
On the fifth anniversary of Holloway's disappearance, a 21-year-old business student named Stephany Flores Ramírez went missing in Lima, Peru. She was found – bludgeoned to death – in a hotel room registered under van der Sloot's name three days later.
The Times continues:
Mr. van der Sloot has been serving a 28-year prison sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of a 21-year-old Peruvian student, Stephany Flores. He will have to return to Peru to finish his sentence for that crime as well as another for a drug smuggling charge.
“You have brutally murdered, in separate instances years apart, two young women who refused your sexual advances,” Judge Manasco said, according to the A.P.
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