Case Breakthrough: Natalee Holloway Murder Suspect Joran van der Sloot to Arrive in United States

The main suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2005 is supposed to be extradited to the United States on Thursday, June 8, according to sources close to her family.

According to ABC News, Joran van der Sloot left the Challapalca prison in Peru on June 3 and was transferred to another prison Lima. From Lima, he will be extradited to the U.S. and taken to Birmingham, Alabama, to face charges of extortion.

The U.S. trial involves federal charges filed in Alabama, which accuse van der Sloot of trying to extort money from the Holloway family in 2010. He allegedly promised to lead them to her body in exchange for $250,000 – $25,000 to disclose the location of Natalee’s body and then $225,000 when the remains were discovered.

During a recorded sting operation, Joran pointed to a house where he said Holloway was buried, according to the Daily Mail. However, he later admitted in emails to lying about the location, officials said.

Holloway, who was 18 at the time, went missing during a senior class trip to Aruba in 2005.

Authorities have never found her body and Joran has never been charged, but officials believe he and two other men are the last people to see Holloway alive, Front Page Detectives reported.

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Holloway was declared legally dead by an Alabama judge in 2012.

Joran has been serving a 28-year sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old college student Stephany Flores, Front Page Detectives previously reported.

In May 2023, Front Page Detectives reported that van der Sloot was allegedly severely beaten by fellow inmates at the Peruvian prison and he was moved to the jail’s medical aisle.