On October 18, 2023, Joran van der Sloot confessed to the murder of Natalee Holloway, finally resolving a case that has captivated Americans since Holloway’s initial disappearance in 2005. In a statement presented to a federal judge in Birmingham, Alabama, Van der Sloot admitted to his horrific actions leading up to the death of Holloway, which occurred during her senior trip to Aruba 18 years ago. 

Van der Sloot had initially been a suspect in the case early on in the investigation. He was a Dutch student living in Aruba at the time of the murder, and one of three people seen leaving a nightclub with Holloway in what would become the last time she was seen. However, after Holloway was officially pronounced dead in 2012, no one was charged for her murder for the following 11 years, as police were unable to pinpoint the perpetrator.

After the initial news of Holloway’s disappearance, many news networks received criticism for their dedication to hours of coverage to the case, since it surrounded a conventionally attractive white woman, while various cases at the time concerning people of other ethnicities received little to no coverage. Nevertheless, the public remained fascinated by Holloway’s case. Several true-crime shows, and even a Lifetime movie, were written with inspiration taken from her disappearance in the following years. 

Van der Sloot agreed to a deal in which he would provide the complete truth about the disappearance of  Natalee Holloway in exchange for a 20-year sentence for separate charges of wire fraud and extortion. When he confessed to the brutal attack, he was also pleading guilty to an attempt to extort money from Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother. According to Beth Holloway, this confession has ultimately ended her family’s long struggle for closure, as the case had remained unsolved for as long as Natalee Holloway’s tragically short life (The New York Times).