Natalee Holloway, a girl from Alabama, disappeared on the last day of her high school graduation vacation to Aruba over 20 years ago.
As Joran van der Sloot, the primary suspect in her disappearance, prepares to be extradited to the US this week, let's look back at the events leading up to his capture and extradition.
May 2005
According to Fox News, Holloway was a senior from the Birmingham suburb of Mountain Brook, Alabama. She traveled to Aruba with a big group of classmates to celebrate their upcoming high school graduation.
On May 30, Holloway and her group of friends, all of whom were 18 at the time, went out to a bar where they met van der Sloot. Together, he and Holloway were seen exiting the pub.
Eventually, Holloway missed her return flight.
Van der Sloot was taken into custody by the police, but he was ultimately freed owing to a lack of evidence. After discovering new facts in 2007, police reexamined the case and ultimately released the suspects again.
The body of Holloway was never located.
May 2010
Exactly five years after Holloway disappeared, Stephany Flores was murdered. According to The Independent, the 21-year-old business major met van der Sloot at a casino in Lima.
After murdering Flores, van der Sloot escaped to Chile but was captured four days later and extradited back to Peru. He attempted to take back the confession sometime afterward.
Van der Sloot told investigators he went mad when Flores learned of his connection with Holloway's disappearance during a game of online poker in his hotel room. Prosecutors also charged him with murdering Flores to steal her gambling winnings.
In Alabama, van der Sloot was indicted on the same day he was captured. Authorities said he took $25,000 in exchange for promising to direct a lawyer representing Holloway's mother to her daughter's remains. The promise he made was never fulfilled.
January 2012
In Peru, van der Sloot admitted to killing Flores in January 2012 and was given a 28-year term for his crime. During the same week in January, a court-approved Holloway's father's plea to officially proclaim her dead.
July 2014
Van der Sloot married Leidy Figueroa, a 24-year-old who was seven months pregnant, in a ceremony staged at the jail where they were both being imprisoned in Peru. Reports at the time said that after his term, he intended to marry her again.
May 2023
Holloway's mother, Beth, released a statement announcing the extradition. Peru authorities subsequently confirmed they had agreed to temporarily transfer van der Sloot to US custody so he could face justice.
"Almost exactly eighteen years later, her perpetrator, Joran van der Sloot, has been extradited to Birmingham to answer for his crimes," Beth stated.
Authorities in Peru have transferred van der Sloot from the isolated jail on top of the mountain at Challapalca to a facility in Lima, closer to the airport from which he is anticipated to travel to the US for extradition.
