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Natalee Holloway and Beth Holloway

Natalee Holloway: Joran van der Sloot’s Confession and Why I Believe Him
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There has been a deluge of people stating factually that Joran van der Sloot is a “pathological liar” and they “don’t believe a word he says.”

If you fall into this category, give me five minutes to explain why I believe him.

Since 2005, I have believed that van der Sloot drugged Natalee Holloway, killed her on the beach, and placed her body in the Atlantic Ocean. I have never wavered from that belief. I told her mother, Beth Holloway, my theory in 2005 when Beth believed Natalee might have been sex trafficked. Beth held out hope that Natalee could be returned to her even during our trip to Aruba in 2021.

I’d like to point out Beth Holloway’s reaction. She stated after last Monday’s court hearing, “Today, I can tell you with certainty after eighteen years, that as far as I’m concerned, Natalee’s case is solved.”

“We finally got justice for Natalee!”

I sat with Beth in 2005 and told her what I believe was the murder of her child. I did not believe she was hurt, kidnapped, or sex trafficked. She held out hope: a mother’s love and never-ending hope that her child would return to her safe.

CrimeOnline’s Nancy Grace and I traveled with Beth back to Aruba searching for witnesses or other evidence to bring this case to a close. The police descended upon us and threatened to arrest us!

Nancy Grace stated to the officers, “Let me get this straight. Y’all are going to arrest in 17 minutes but y’all haven’t arrested Van der Sloot in 17 years for murdering Natalee?”

Here are the fish huts in Aruba where Nancy Grace, and I visited with Beth Holloway while on the island last year. I have circled a broken cinder block. Behind these small huts were boards, crates, buckets and blocks.

We sat with Beth and Nancy Grace in front of a small chapel on a hilltop overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Aruba when she turned to us and stated, “I know y’all will think I’m crazy but I brought Natalee’s passport just in case.”

At that moment, Nancy Grace was not a famed prosecutor and I was not a trained CSI – we were just three moms. The facts did not matter, our theories did not matter, all that mattered was helping Beth get answers and find peace. Never-ending hope, faith, and love are what Beth has hoped for, for almost two decades, as I mentioned in a previous episode of my “Zone 7” podcast.

She has fought. For eighteen years she fought her fears, her knowing, the Aruban police, the Holiday Inn, The Aruban government, the van der Sloots, and the island.

I have not found anyone who ever thought van der Sloot was innocent of Natalee’s disappearance. Most people I talked with and most experts have always believed he murdered her. So, when he stated in court that he had killed Natalee, I believed him.

FILE – Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot, left, is driven in a police vehicle from a maximum-security prison to an airport to be extradited to the U.S., on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Thursday, June 8, 2023. Court records filed Friday, Oct. 13, indicate Van der Sloot, the chief suspect in Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance, intends to plead guilty in a federal case accusing him of trying to extort money from the missing teen’s mother. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File)

I want to break down in a chart some of the similarities between both murders from confessed killer Joran van der Sloot.

Let’s talk similar transaction: “proof of a distinct, independent, and separate offense admissible in a trial of a crime which has some logical connection with he current offense, from which it can be said that proof of the one tends to establish the other.”

Basically, two separate crimes have similarities that can’t or should not be overlooked and it tends to prove the defendant committed both crimes because of the same MO, signatures, and other factors.

Natalee Holloway and Stephany Flores Deaths (in my opinon, in part):

  • Both were students, smart, hard-working, and kind.
  • Nataless was murdered on May 30, 2005, while Stephany was murdered on May 30, 2010.
  • Both gambled with the killer the night before their deaths.
  • Natalee was with friends; Stephany was with at least one friend.
  • I believe that the killer separated both victims from their group and gave both victims a date rape drug.
  • Both victims were seen on surveillance video in the casino.
  • Both victims were seen on surveillance video in a hotel.
  • Both victims were taken to a secluded place (Natalee: beach and Stephany: hotel room).
  • Attempted to have sex with both victims; both victims refused sex.
  • Natalee kneed him in the groin while Stephany hit him in the head.
  • Natalee (kicked with leg) attacked the killer with a body part; Stephany also attacked the killer (hit with an elbow).
  • The killer attacked Natalee in the face and head and attacked Stephany in the face and head.
  • Natalee’s cause of death: blunt force trauma; Stephany’s cause of death: blunt force trauma.
  • The killer then picks up objects (Natalee: cinder block and Stephany: tennis racquet) and bludgeons victims to death.
  • Killer steals $25,000 from Natalee’s mother; He then steals $10,000 from Stephany after the murder.
  • Both murders occurred after midnight.
  • The killer walked home and watched porn after Natalee’s death; he walked out and got breakfast after Stephany’s death.
  • The killer disposed of Natalee in the ocean; he attempted to place Stephany in a suitcase to dispose of her body in the ocean.
  • The killer washed blood off of himself in the ocean after Natalee’s death, then washed Stephany’s blood off by taking a shower.
  • The killer used the tide to pull Natalee’s body out to sea and had navel tide charts with him when arrested for Stephanie’s death.
  • The killer contacted friends through emails and called his ex-girlfriend by cell phone; lied about his involvement.
  • He confessed for a plea deal, and lied about involvement in Natalee’s death; he then confessed and tried to make a plea deal in Stephany’s death.
  • He blamed two security guards for Natalee’s death and blamed an armed man for Stephany’s death.
  • He acted alone in both murders.
  • Apologized to Natalee’s family: “I would like to apologize to the Holloway family, I am no longer that person.”
  • Apologized to Stephany’s family: “I truly am sorry for this act. I feel very bad.”

Numerous people on the island of Aruba knew Joran was underage drinking and gambling. His parents knew it. Many bartenders and waiters told us when we were his MO was to use GHB (the date rape drug) on unsuspecting victims the night before they left for home.

He knew most victims would not stay in a foreign country to press charges. They were going to take their plane ride home. Locals knew, his friends knew, his family knew, and the police knew. No one warned potential victims to not accept drinks from strangers.

No one stopped him. No one arrested him. Remember at the time of Natalle’s “disappearance,” van der Sloot was only 17 years old. He should have never been allowed into the bar or casino to prey on innocent victims.

FILE – Beth Holloway, mother of Natalie Holloway, enters the Hugo L. Black United States Courthouse, Friday, June 9, 2023, in Birmingham, Ala. Court records filed Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, indicate Joran van der Sloot, the chief suspect in Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance, intends to plead guilty in a federal case accusing him of trying to extort money from the missing teen’s mother. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt, File)

Nancy, Beth, and I are banned from Aruba’s Holiday Inn for life. We committed no crime, no disturbance, and we only stood across the street filming Beth while she sought answers about Natalee. Joran van der Sloot was never banned.

Until Aruba admits he is a murderer and refuses his re-entry I would never return. But at least if I do return, I have options of where to stay because according to a news personality, the killer’s mom is renting out Joran’s bedroom on Airbnb.

After the federal court proceedings in Bringham, Alabama, Beth said to me, “I’m free, I’m free, I’m free!”

Joran van der Sloot is a confessed serial killer. If he is ever free, he will in my opinion kill again. Do I believe every single word of his confession?

I believe every single word the Judge said to him: “You have brutally murdered two women who refused your sexual advances”! Justice for Natalee at last!

Listen to a previous “Zone 7” podcast on the case below.

About the ‘Zone 7’ Host

Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award-winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnline, a forensic and crime scene expert for “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,” and a CSI for a metro-area Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook, “Cold Case: Pathways to Justice.”

McCollum is also the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, a collaboration between universities and colleges that brings researchers, practitioners, students, and the criminal justice community. They come together to advance techniques in solving cold cases and assist families and law enforcement with solvability factors for unsolved homicides, missing persons, and kidnapping cases.

You can connect and learn more about McCollum’s work by visiting the CCIRI website https://coldcasecrimes.org

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[Feature Photos: Natalee Holloway/Family Handout; Beth Holloway in Aruba (Sheryl McCollum)]