Natalee Holloway Case: Major Setback Announced in Joran Van der Sloot Extortion Trial

Joran Van der Sloot recently was extradited to the United States to face federal charges he extorted money from the parents of missing teenager Natalee Holloway, but there’s been a major change in the case.

On June 27, a judge granted 35-year-old Van der Sloot’s request for a trial delay until this fall, time his lawyer, Kevin Butler, will now use to either work on his defense case or possibly prepare a guilty plea, the New York Daily News reported.

Van der Sloot’s federal trial was originally scheduled to begin on July 31.

Van der Sloot was serving a 28-year sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old college student Stephany Flores, Front Page Detectives previously reported.

He was extradited from the South American country to Alabama to face federal charges accusing van der Sloot of trying to extort money from the Holloway family in 2010.

Natalee Holloway went missing while vacationing in Aruba and Van der Sloot remains a prime suspect in her disappearance.

Holloway, who was 18 at the time, went missing during a senior class trip, and though her body was never located, she was declared legally dead by an Alabama judge in 2012.

Van der Sloot, prosecutors alleged, promised to lead the teenager’s loved ones to her body in exchange for $250,000 – $25,000 to disclose the location of Natalee’s body and an additional $225,000 after Holloway’s remains were recovered.

Van der Sloot has never been charged with Holloway’s disappearance, but officials believe he and two other men are the last people to see Holloway alive.