ORANJESTAD — Joran van der Sloot, the main suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, and his father rented a boat and “took care of things,” he claimed in a newly obtained email sent two days after the teen vanished.
Days after the Alabama teen disappeared during a class trip to Aruba, van der Sloot wrote to someone named “David G,” claiming, “My dad got a boat two days later,” The Messenger reported Saturday.
“We went for a ride and took care of things. That’s all I’m going to say,” the email read.
Van der Sloot has been serving a 28-year sentence for the murder of Stephany Flores.AP
Van der Sloot was extradited to the US in June to face fraud and extortion charges tied to the disappearance of Holloway, 18. She was last seen leaving a bar with the then 17, who was identified as a suspect in her disappearance but never charged in connection with her death.
Van der Sloot, now 35, has been in prison in Peru for over a decade after pleading guilty to the May 2010 murder of student Stephany Flores, 21, whom he strangled at a casino in Lima exactly five years after Holloway disappeared.
In the 18 years since Holloway’s disappearance, officials in Aruba have dug into van der Sloot’s claims that he dumped the teen’s body at sea on several occasions, one investigator told The Messanger.
Van der Sloot was extradited to the US from Peru earlier this summer. (AP photo)
“It’s always seemed most likely that she was taken out on a boat,” an unidentified Aruba investigator told the outlet. “But the key is figuring out who would have taken him out there to do it. He and his father didn’t have a boat of their own.”
While officials have not been able to confirm the theory, van der Sloot himself has previously claimed to have dumped Holloway’s body at sea.
During a hidden camera interview with Dutch journalists Peter De Vries and Patrick van der Eem in 2008, van der Sloot said that Holloway had a seizure while they were having sex on the beach and died.
He then claimed to have called a friend named Daury who helped him load her onto a boat and dump her body overboard — though in the years since the interview, van der Sloot has claimed to have lied to the journalists.
Holloway, whose remains have never been found, was declared legally dead in January 2012.ASSOCIATED PRESS
Since her disappearance, van der Sloot has provided a wide and conflicting array of stories to explain what happened to the missing teen.
In May 2010, van der Sloot allegedly promised to reveal the location of Holloway’s body in exchange for $250,000. He subsequently led Beth Holloway’s lawyer to the site where he claimed her remains were hidden after receiving a $25,000 upfront payment but later backtracked on the bizarre tale.
In an email sent from the same address, van der Sloot later admitted he had made up the entire story.
He is now facing federal charges in the US for allegedly lying about Holloway’s whereabouts and extorting money from her parents.
The time that van der Sloot ends up spending in the US “will be extended until the conclusion of the criminal proceedings,” including the appeal process, should there be one, according to a resolution published in Peru’s federal register.
The resolution also states that US authorities agree to return van der Sloot to the custody of Peru afterward.
Holloway, whose remains have never been found, was declared legally dead in January 2012.