More than two decades after Natalee Holloway disappeared during a high school graduation trip to Aruba, her mother, Beth Holloway, is still fighting for justice — even after Joran van der Sloot admitted to killing the 18-year-old.
Van der Sloot confessed to bludgeoning Natalee to death in a 2023 proffer agreement, closing the door on one of the most closely followed missing-persons cases of the past 20 years. But as Beth told Netflix’s Tudum following the November 4, 2026, premiere of the streamer’s three-part docuseries Taken: Natalee Holloway, her work isn’t finished.
“The nightmare’s over, right? But I’m not done yet,” she said.
Here’s a complete look back at what happened to Natalee, how van der Sloot was finally held accountable and what Beth is doing next.
Natalee Holloway’s Disappearance in Aruba
Natalee was 18 years old when she vanished on May 30, 2005, while celebrating her high school graduation in Oranjestad, Aruba. She was last seen leaving the Carlos’n Charlie’s nightclub, climbing into a gray Honda with a group of local young men — including van der Sloot and brothers Deepak Kalpoe and Satish Kalpoe.
Van der Sloot quickly emerged as a suspect after the accounts he gave authorities didn’t line up. He and the Kalpoe brothers were arrested in June 2005 on suspicion of kidnapping and murder, but all three were released without charges that September. The trio was arrested again in November 2007 and released once more a month later.
Joran van der Sloot’s Confession and Prison Sentences
The case against van der Sloot was reopened by Aruban officials in 2008 after Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries released hidden-camera footage showing him describing Natalee’s death. The case ultimately fell apart when officials couldn’t corroborate his statements.
Five years after Natalee disappeared, van der Sloot killed 21-year-old college student Stephany Flores Ramírez in Lima, Peru. He fled to Chile before being arrested in June 2010 for Flores’ murder. That same month, he was also indicted in the United States on federal wire fraud and extortion charges tied to a March 2010 meeting with Beth, during which he demanded money from her in exchange for information about her daughter.
An Alabama judge declared Natalee legally dead on January 12, 2012.
In October 2023, van der Sloot pleaded guilty to the federal extortion charges and was sentenced to 20 years. As part of the plea deal, he agreed to share information about Natalee’s death and finally confessed to killing her. The court allowed him to serve his wire fraud and extortion sentence concurrently with the 28-year sentence for Flores’ murder.
“Joran van der Sloot is no longer the suspect in my daughter’s murder,” Beth told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama, after the confession. “He is the killer.”
Despite the admission, van der Sloot was not sentenced for Natalee’s murder itself because the 12-year statute of limitations for murder had already expired in Aruba by the time he came clean.
Beth Holloway’s Ongoing Fight for Justice
Though the mystery of what happened to her daughter has been solved, Beth Holloway is far from finished. She has spent the past two years working with Netherlands-based attorneys Royce de Vries and Annemiek van Spanje to file a murder complaint with Dutch authorities against van der Sloot.
“I’ve been working busy behind the scenes, got the murder complaint,” she told Tudum. “And now we’re working on, hopefully, murder charges. So I’ve been busy, but one step at a time.”
Beth said she feels confident in her legal team — and noted that Royce has a personal connection to the case. He is the son of the Dutch investigative journalist whose 2008 reporting documented van der Sloot admitting to his involvement in Natalee’s death.
“I know this is a legacy to his father,” Beth said of Royce. “He’s going to finish this job.” She added that a Dutch prosecutor is “obtaining all the documents” and “getting all Natalee’s case files.”
Asked where the case currently stands, she replied, “it’s in the hopper.”
Beth Holloway Reflects on Closure and Her ‘New Mission’
Even as she waits for the legal process to unfold, Beth isn’t slowing down. “I stayed true to my mission, I wanted answers, I got [them]. Took a long time. Now, OK, this is another step,” she said, adding that pursuing justice for Natalee is her “new mission.”
She also opened up about the lasting toll of her daughter’s murder and how she’s come to terms with the loss. “You hear the word closure a lot when someone’s living with losing a loved one. And everybody uses a term that fits them best. For me, it’s about ‘it’s over,’” she told Tudum.
“I never used the word closure, and I know it’s probably a matter of semantics,” Beth continued. “The not-knowing is the never-ending nightmare. And with that nightmare, you endure endless scammers, theories, investigations that are swirling around you, and they never cease because you can never say it’s over.”
Beth said she now feels at peace “because the nightmare of not knowing what happened to Natalee is over, and the endless scammers, the endless taunting of her killer, they’re over.”
This story was compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists.
