What To Know
- Taken: Natalee Holloway explores Natalee Holloway’s disappearance and her mom Beth Holloway’s fight for answers.
- The Netflix docuseries includes never-before-seen footage of Joran van der Sloot, who later confessed to killing Natalee.
- The newly-released clip features a hotel room meeting between Joran and Beth’s attorney in 2010.
In 2023, Joran van der Sloot pleaded guilty to wire fraud and extortion and, as part of his plea deal, also confessed to killing Natalee Holloway 18 years earlier. In the three-part Netflix docu-series Taken: Natalee Holloway, Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway, and others involved in the years-long case told the full story of the 18-year-old’s disappearance and her family’s fight for answers, including never-before-seen footage.
Beth’s fight was often heavily focused on Joran, who was the prime suspect in Natalee’s disappearance due to the fact that she was last seen getting in a car with him outside Carlos ‘n Charlie’s nightclub in May 2005. For years, Joran maintained his innocence, but continuously changed up his story. In 2010, he agreed to meet with Beth’s lawyer, John Kelly, and reveal where Natalee’s body was … in exchange for $250,000 from Beth.
Taken: Natalee Holloway includes video footage from that meeting, which is being shared publicly for the first time. “The following video has remained in the custody of the FBI since 2010 and has never been publicly released until now,” a disclaimer in Episode 3 read.
The clip begins with Joran entering the room and John telling him, “Have a seat. Here’s the deal. I’ve got two original contracts and I’ll give them to you. The big thing that I’ve emphasized, that I’ve told you in emails, like, are you ready to be really specific about where Natalee is? You absolutely know and you can take me right there?”
Netflix
Joran replied, “I’m ready. I can’t believe I’m doing it, but I’m ready.” He then asked for a Coke to drink, and John got up to grab one. “Yeah, you look pretty hot,” the attorney said. Joran answered, “It’s so hot outside. I had to wait on a cab for, like, five minutes. I was sweating my ass off.”
After Joran took a sip of the soda, John gave him the contract to look over and asked, “Is this something that is relatively close by with the car that we can take care of?” Joran assured him, “It’s not more than five minutes from here.”
John then counted out the $10,000 he brought in cash. “As soon as we sign the contract, I’m going to send [Beth] a text or call, and she’s going to send the other $15,000 to that account,” he told Joran, citing the agreement that the suspect would receive $25,000 up front.
Netflix
“To be completely honest, for me, the biggest deal is the 225 [thousand] afterwards,” Joran admitted. “Did you put in the contract that that would be paid within the month?” John replied, “Yeah. I’ve got it. So if you want to sign it, I’ll sign it.”
Of course, as far as John was concerned, there was never going to be another $225,000, because if Joran actually showed him where the body was, he would be arrested for Natalee’s murder, and if his information didn’t pan out, he would be arrested for wire fraud and extortion.
The footage ended there, with Joran and John exiting the Aruba hotel room. Joran ended up taking John to a nearby house and told him Natalee’s body had been dumped there while construction was being done in 2005. He claimed that her remains were in the foundation of the house, but the FBI’s investigation proved that there was no construction on that lot the day Natalee disappeared.
This allowed authorities to bring legal action against Joran for wire fraud and extortion against Beth. They planned to extradite him to the United States to formally bring about the charges. However, Joran wound up leaving Aruba for Peru, where he killed Stephany Flores Ramírez, a 21-year-old woman, in a hotel room on the five-year anniversary of Natalee’s death.
Joran was sentenced to 28 years in prison in Peru. At first, he was expected to serve his full sentence before being extradited to the United States, but Peru agreed to a temporary transfer in 2023 “since the U.S. needs him in order to face trial, and the authorities told us that if he didn’t get there sooner, the case against him could be dropped because the witnesses are elderly,” per CNN.
After Joran accepted his plea deal in October 2023, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison on the extortion charges, which will run concurrently with his Peruvian prison sentence. He is serving his time at Challapalca prison in Peru and is expected to be released in 2045.
Taken: Natalee Holloway, Streaming Now, Netflix
