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The lead suspect in Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance is due in court next week, and media reports say he’s expected to enter a guilty plea in a federal case over his alleged effort to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from the woman’s family.
Joran van der Sloot, 36, has a court hearing set for Wednesday in Birmingham, Ala. to address what are the only charges connecting him to the Natalee Holloway disappearance.
Van der Sloot pleaded not guilty to the charges in June, after he was extradited from Peru, where he was serving a 28-year sentence after confessing to the killing of a Peruvian woman in 2010.
Natalee Holloway was 18 when she went missing in Aruba, while on a graduation trip with her high school class. She was last seen exiting a bar with van der Sloot, who was registered as an international student at the time.
Federal prosecutors say that same year, van der Sloot attempted to extort money from Beth Holloway in exchange for sharing information regarding the location of her daughter’s body.
According to an FBI arrest affidavit, he requested the family pay $25,000 up front and another $250,000 once they uncovered the body.
During a recorded sting operation, van der Sloot pointed to a house where he said Holloway was buried, the feds say. He later admitted to lying about the location.
The disappearance of Alabama resident Holloway got heavy news coverage at the time and was the subject of numerous true-crime podcasts.
Van der Sloot was detained just weeks after her disappearance, but has never been charged in her disappearance.
“For 18 years, I have lived with the unbearable pain of Natalee’s loss,” Holloway’s mother said in a written statement the day before van der Sloot’s not guilty plea in June. “Each day has been filled with unanswered questions and a longing for justice that has eluded us at every turn.”
Although her body has never been found, an Alabama judge declared Holloway legally dead in 2012.
With News Wire Services
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Evan Rosen
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