Natalee Holloway, left, and Beth Holloway.Photo:AP Photo/Family photo, AP Photo/ Butch Dill
AP Photo/Family photo, AP Photo/ Butch Dill
The mother ofNatalee Holloway, the Alabama high school senior who was killed while on a class trip to Aruba in 2005, doesn’t accept the apology from her daughter’s killer.
On Wednesday,Joran van der Sloot, long a suspect in Natalee’s death, admitted to killing the 18-year-old afterpleading guilty to extortion and wire fraud chargesfor extorting Natalee’s mother, Beth.
In court, the Dutch national apologized to Natalee’s family, but to Beth, that wasn’t enough.
In aninterview with NBC News, Beth said of van der Sloot’s purported remorse, “He doesn’t have that in his existence. Just to say the words? It’s fine. It didn’t mean anything.”
As part of his plea agreement, van der Sloot told investigators that he bludgeoned Natalee with a cinder block after she declined his sexual advances, Beth’s lawyer, John Q. Kellyexclusively told PEOPLE. He then threw her body in the water, Natalee’s mother told reporters after Wednesday’s hearing.
Despite his confession, van der Sloot likely cannot be prosecuted in Aruba since the statute of limitations for murder is 12 years.
Jordan van der Sloot.AP Photo/Martin Mejia
AP Photo/Martin Mejia
Nataleedisappeared on May 30, 2005while on a senior trip to Aruba with her classmates. She was last seen leaving a nightclub with van der Sloot, then 17, and two other men. That morning, she and her classmates were due to fly home to Alabama, but Holloway did not make the flight and was never seen again.
Van der Sloot was arrested several times in connection with Natalee’s disappearance but never charged. Natalee waslegally declared deadin 2012, but her body has never been found.
“I paid my daughter’s killer money,” Beth said in court,AL.com reports. “That’s shocking. I don’t think anyone can really wrap their mind around what that means.”
Van der Sloot is currently in prison for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramírez in a Lima, Peru hotel room. He has been sentenced to 28 years.
In May of this year, thePeruvian government issued a decree allowingvan der Sloot to be handed over to U.S. authorities to face charges in connection with the extortion case.
Van der Sloot was sentenced to 20 years for the extortion and wire fraud crimes on Wednesday. The American sentence will run concurrently with his Peruvian one, but if officials there release him early, he will serve the remainder of the 20 years in the U.S.
source: people.com
