Joran van der Sloot admits to extorting Holloways
Joran van der Sloot, charged with killing a Peruvian woman and suspected in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, has confessed to extorting money from Holloway's parents. Joran van der Sloot as confessing to taking money from the family of the American in return for revealing the location of her body.
In a June 4, file photo Joran van der Sloot is escorted by police officers outside a Peruvian police station, near the border with Chile in Tacna, Peru.
Karel Navarro/AP/File
Amsterdam
Joran van der Sloot, charged with killing a 21-year-old Peruvian woman and suspected in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway has acknowledged extorting money from Holloway's parents and says he did it to get back at them.
In an interview published Monday, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf quoted Joran van der Sloot as confessing to taking money from the family of the American in return for revealing the location of her body. He was indicted in the U.S. in June for extortion after being caught in an FBI sting, though the place he indicated as her burial site turned out to be bogus.
Holloway was last seen alive with him on the Caribbean resort island of Aruba in 2005, and he has publicly said he killed her and then retracted his confession several times.
"I wanted to get back at Natalee's family — her parents have been making my life tough for five years," the paper quoted him as saying from prison in Peru. "When they offered to pay for the girl's location, I thought: 'Why not'?"
U.S. prosecutors say in the sting earlier this year, Natalee's mother sent $10,000 in cash to Van der Sloot through an FBI witness, and a wire transfer of $15,000 to Van der Sloot's bank account in the Netherlands. He took the money and flew to Latin America.
He has been charged with killing Stephany Flores in his hotel room in Lima, Peru, on May 30 — five years to the day after Holloway's disappearance. He met both women in casinos.
Van der Sloot initially confessed to killing Flores to Peruvian police, but later said he only did so because he was intimidated and had been promised he would be extradited to the Netherlands.
His requests to have the Peruvian confession retracted have so far been denied and he awaits trial.