Natalee Holloway's confessed killer caught trying to extort $250K from grieving mother in FBI sting video
Newly released FBI sting video shows Joran van der Sloot attempting to extort $250,000 from Natalee Holloway's mother in exchange for information about her daughter's disappearance.
The video, featured in Netflix's 'Taken: Natalee Holloway' docuseries, captures van der Sloot meeting with Kelly at an Aruba hotel in 2010. The Dutch national had emailed Kelly offering information about Holloway's death and remains for $250,000. Beth Holloway agreed to pay $25,000 initially, believing it might finally bring answers about her daughter's disappearance.
In the recording, van der Sloot appears remarkably casual while discussing the extortion. 'His brazenness stood out to me,' director Dani Sloane told Fox News Digital. 'He's having a casual conversation while he's extorting the mother of his victim for money, for information that only he knows. It's astonishing.'
The Extortion Attempt
The footage shows Kelly handing van der Sloot $10,000 in cash during their meeting. Van der Sloot inquired about the remaining $225,000 payment, asking, 'Did you put in the contract that that would be paid within a month?' before signing their agreement.
False Information
Van der Sloot then led Kelly to a nearby house, claiming Holloway's body had been buried in the foundation during construction. Investigators later determined this information was false. Before U.S. authorities could press charges, van der Sloot fled to Peru.
According to former Aruban police official Gerold Dompig, van der Sloot had changed his story about what happened to Holloway an estimated 40 times during the initial investigation. 'He is so masterful at evading law enforcement and evading consequences by just outright lying,' Sloane noted.
Subsequent Murder
On May 30, 2010—exactly five years after Holloway's disappearance—van der Sloot murdered 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramírez in his Lima hotel room. He claimed she discovered information about Holloway's disappearance on his laptop, leading him to beat and strangle her.
Van der Sloot is currently imprisoned in Peru for Flores Ramírez's murder. In October 2023, he confessed to killing Holloway as part of a plea agreement in a federal extortion and wire fraud case involving her family. He has never been charged in connection with Holloway's murder, though a judge declared her dead in 2012.
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