What is a proffer? Meaning explored as Joran Van Der Sloot admits to killing Natalee Holloway

The mystery shrouding the disappearance of American Teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba during a high school graduation trip in May 2005, was finally solved after Joran Van Der Sloot, the man long suspected in her death, confessed to the killing. Van Der Sloot said that he killed Hollway after she rejected his advances at a beach in Aruba and pushed her body in to the sea.

According to court documents cited in multiple reports, shortly before pleading guilty to wire fraud charges stemming from Natalee Holloway’s disappearance, Joran Van Der Sloot admitted to killing the Alabama teen in Aruba during a high school graduation trip in May 2005.

The confession came shortly after Van Der Sloot agreed to a proffer in exchange for a plea deal. A proffer can be defined as an act of volunteering to divulge information. Van Der Sloot agreed to confess to Natalee Holloway’s murder in exchange for certain considerations regarding the federal charges.

On Wednesday, October 18, Joran Van Der Sloot, 35, a Dutch national, pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud and extortion in a plot to sell information about the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway's remains to her parents in exchange for $250,000. However, Sloot, who reportedly confessed to the teen’s killing, was not charged with her murder as he cannot stand trial for it in the US.

Van Der Sloot, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud will concurrently serve the time with his 28-year sentence in Peru for another killing. The suspect, extradited to the U.S. in May to face the federal charges stemming from the Hollway case, was imprisoned in Peru, where he was serving 28 prison sentences for killing a 21-year-old Peruvian woman, Stephany Flores in 2010.

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Details of Natalee Holloway's murder explored after Joran Van Der Sloot admits to the killing

Joran Van Der Sloot was considered a person of interest in Natalee Hollway’s disappearance, as the teen was last seen leaving a bar with the suspect. However, authorities could not pin the murder on Van Der Sloot due to circumstantial evidence in the case and the absence of the teen’s body.

In 2010, a U.S. federal grand jury indicted Joran van der Sloot, 36, on charges of wire fraud and extortion in a plot to sell information about the whereabouts of Holloway's remains to her parents in exchange for $250,000. At the time, the extradition was paused as Van Der Sloot was already detained in Peru for the death of Stephany Flores.

However, in May 2023, Peru officials announced that Joran Van Der Sloot would be temporarily extradited to the US, to face the 2010 extortion and fraud charges in connection with Natalee Holloway's death. Months after the suspect was extradited to the US he confessed to the teen's murder.

According to court documents, Joran Van Der Sloot said that on the night of the incident, he and Natalee Holloway exited a bar, went to a beach and began kissing. As the couple continued kissing, Van Der Sloot reportedly began touching Holloway, who rejected the advance and kneed him when he refused to relent despite her protest.

Enraged by the rejection, Van Der Sloot reportedly stood up and kicked her in the face before getting hold of a cinderblock and hitting her with it. Van Der Sloot then moved an unconscious Holloway into the ocean, and he pushed her out to sea. Holloway was declared dead in 2012 despite her body never being found.

Despite the confession, officials said they don’t have jurisdiction over the criminal investigation into Hollway’s death in Aruba. However, they were able to charge him with an alleged plot to sell information about Holloway’s remains to her family.

According to CNN, Van der Sloot will return to Peru to finish serving his sentence in Flores Muder and then return to the US to serve time for the federal charges stemming from the Holloway case.