Natalee Holloway
Natalee Holloway was born in Clinton, Mississippi and grew up in Mountain Brook, Alabama, after her parents divorced and her mother remarried. She was a straight-A student, a dancer, a member of the National Honor Society, and the kind of person who made things look effortless. She had already been accepted to the University of Alabama. The future was entirely, unambiguously hers.
As the end of her senior year approached, she and her classmates planned what so many high school seniors do — one final trip before everything changed. They chose Aruba. A hundred students and chaperones, sun-kissed beaches, crystal clear water, and a drinking age of eighteen. It was supposed to be the perfect send-off.
For the first few days, it was. The group lounged on the beach, explored the island, tried new food, and made their way to Carlos and Charlie's — a popular nightclub in the Palm Beach area known for its loud music, belly shots, and a staff that performed for the crowd. They went back more than once, because that's what you do when a place feels familiar and safe. By the last night of the trip, it felt like home.
The Morning She Was Gone
When the group boarded the bus to the airport, someone noticed Natalee was missing. At first there was laughter — the kind of easy, end-of-trip joking that happens when someone oversleeps or disappears with someone they met the night before. Then the laughter stopped. Chaperones changed their tone. No one knew where she was.
Some stayed behind. The police were called. As the bus pulled away, the students sent texts describing who they'd last seen Natalee with and sharing photos that might help find her. The trip that was supposed to end in high spirits ended in dread.
Joran van der Sloot
Three people were seen with Natalee on the night she disappeared — Joran van der Sloot, a seventeen-year-old Dutch citizen living in Aruba, and two brothers, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. The brothers were arrested first. Their stories changed. Deepak eventually claimed they had dropped Natalee off at her hotel — but no evidence supported it, and their accounts kept contradicting each other. They were released.
Attention shifted to Joran. He was charming, charismatic, and immediately suspicious. He was arrested on June 10th — eleven days after Natalee vanished — and held for three months. He was never charged. He denied everything, gave conflicting statements, and seemed to treat the entire investigation like a performance. Natalee's mother, Beth Twitty, and her father, Dave Holloway, flew to Aruba and went on every news outlet that would have them. They wanted their daughter. Joran continued walking free.
In February 2006, a man named Guido Wever came forward claiming he had overheard Joran and the Kalpoe brothers discussing what happened to Natalee — suggesting she had died accidentally and her body had been disposed of offshore. No physical evidence corroborated it. The case went cold.
Joran Moves On
While Natalee remained missing, Joran van der Sloot began a new life. He traveled internationally, played poker, won money at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour in Macau in August 2009. He started a YouTube channel and declared himself a professional poker player. He cited a poker strategy guide as his favorite book. He appeared to be doing just fine.
In early 2010, he returned to Aruba following the death of his father. He was aware that the anniversary of Natalee's disappearance was approaching and would bring the news cycle back around to him. He left quickly — first to Colombia, then to Peru, to attend the Latin American Poker Tour.
Lima, Peru — May 30, 2010
In Lima, Joran met Stephany Flores, a twenty-one-year-old business student less than a year from graduation at the University of Lima. They drank and played poker together. She followed him back to his hotel room — room 309.
It was May 30th, 2010. Exactly five years to the day of Natalee Holloway's presumed murder.
Stephany Flores was killed in that room. The autopsy determined she had not had sexual intercourse before her death. Her toxicology showed alcohol and amphetamines, neither at a level that would have prevented her from resisting. She died from blunt force trauma to the head — a brain hemorrhage, a cranial fracture, a broken neck. She also showed signs of asphyxiation. Investigators described the killing as an act of rage.
The Arrest
Joran ran. He attempted to cross multiple international borders while texting his girlfriend on his mobile phone and using his identification at border crossings — a remarkably poor escape plan. He was spotted entering Chile on May 31st. He sent texts asking for money to buy flights back to Aruba. On June 3rd, Chilean police arrested him in a taxi on Highway 68 near Santiago.
The inventory of his belongings included a laptop, foreign currency, detailed charts of ocean currents around Lima, and bloody clothing. He told police that armed robbers had hidden in his hotel room and killed Stephany when she wouldn't stay quiet.
He was extradited to Peru on June 4th.
The Verdicts
On January 11th, 2012 — one day before Natalee Holloway was officially declared legally dead by an Alabama court — Joran van der Sloot pled guilty to the qualified murder and robbery of Stephany Flores. He was sentenced to twenty-eight years in prison. He is expected to be released on June 10th, 2038, and will be extradited to the United States, where a federal warrant for his arrest awaits.
While in prison, Joran was permitted conjugal visits. He fathered a child. He married.
Natalee Holloway has never been found.
Joran's mother, Anita van der Sloot, said it best in a Dutch television interview: "I believe in karma. I believe that very strongly. I believe that if you do things that you should not do, a lot of things happen to you."
We have to wait until 2038 to see the next chapter of this story. Maybe by then, Natalee will finally be found.