Netflix‘s new docuseries “Taken: Natalee Holloway” reveals why investigators struggled to get answers from Joran van der Sloot after 18-year-old Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba in 2005. Although he was the last known person to see the Alabama teenager alive, his changing statements and the lack of physical evidence complicated the investigation.
Joran van der Sloot’s behavior frustrated investigators in Aruba
According to OK! Magazine, investigators questioned van der Sloot soon after Holloway disappeared during a graduation trip. However, he repeatedly changed his account of that night.
Gerold Dompig, Aruba’s police chief at the time, recalled, “He liked being the dominant one, the center of attention. He changed his story, I think, 40 times.”
Dompig also said van der Sloot’s father, Paulus, complicated the investigation. As an attorney training to become a judge, he could advise his son and had greater access to him.
Paulus allegedly told his son, “there’s no body, there’s no crime.” With no body or sufficient forensic evidence, authorities eventually released van der Sloot.
According to Oxygen, van der Sloot initially claimed he had dropped Holloway at her hotel around 2 a.m. However, surveillance footage showed no evidence that she had returned.
In 2010, he offered Holloway’s mother, Beth, information about her daughter’s remains in exchange for $250,000. The location he provided proved false, and he later admitted to lying.
That same year, van der Sloot murdered 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramirez in Peru. A court subsequently sentenced him to 28 years in prison.
In 2023, van der Sloot confessed to killing Holloway as part of a plea agreement with US prosecutors involving extortion and wire fraud charges.
He admitted attacking Holloway on a beach after she rejected his advances. He kicked her in the head and struck her with a cinder block before throwing her body into the ocean.
Holloway’s remains have never been found. Van der Sloot remains imprisoned in Peru, where he received additional prison time for drug trafficking while incarcerated.
