Where is Joran Van Der Sloot? Prime suspect in 2005 Natalee Holloway disappearance slated to be extradited to US 

Joran Van Der Sloot, a prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of late American teen Natalee Holloway, will reportedly be extradited to the US to face criminal charges, officials in Peru said in a statement on Wednesday, May 10, 2023.

Joran van der Sloot, 35, a Dutch national, is currently in Peru serving 28 prison sentences for killing a 21-year-old Peruvian woman Stephany Flores in 2010. Van Der Sloot was convicted in 2012 of murdering Flores in his Lima hotel room, two years earlier. Incidentally, Joran van der Sloot was also connected to US citizen 18-year-old Natalee Holloway’s death as she was last seen leaving a bar in Aruba with him.

Holloway, who lived with her parents in Alabama, was in Aruba on a high school graduation trip in May 2005 when she vanished after leaving a bar with Van der Sloot.

While Van der Sloot was arrested in connection to Holloway’s disappearance, he was never charged with the crime due to insufficient evidence. However, in 2010, U.S. federal grand jury indicted Joran van der Sloot 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. The extradition never came to pass as Van Der Sloot was already detained in Peru in the death of Stephany Flores.

After years of unsuccessfully searching for Holloway, she was declared dead in 2012 despite her body never being found.

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Joran Van Der Sloot took money from Natalee Holloway's mother in exchange for information on her daughter's remains

On Wednesday, Peru officials announced that Joran Van Der Sloot will be temporarily extradited to the US to face the 2010 extortion and fraud charges in connection with Natalee Holloway's death. Van Der Sloot is accused of plotting to extort $250,000 from Beth Holloway, Natalee's mother, promising information about her 18-year-old daughter’s remains in 2010.

As per CNN, in a desperate bid to glean information about her missing daughter, Beth Holloway reportedly wired some money to Van Der Sloot, who reportedly turned over a false location.

While officials were unable to extradite the suspect in 2010, on Wednesday, Peru officials said that they will be sending him over to the U.S. to answer for his crimes, albeit temporarily.

In a statement on social media, the Peruvian judiciary said that once Van Der Sloot’s trial concludes in the US he will be immediately brought back to Peru to serve out the remainder of his sentence in the death of Flores, which will end in 2038. They said:

“The requesting country must keep the defendant in custody during the entire proceedings in its territory. Once the criminal proceedings against (van der Sloot) conclude, he will immediately be returned to the Peruvian authorities.”

Shortly after Peruvian officials announced Joran Van Der Sloot’s extradition to the US, Natalie Holloway’s mother Beth Holloway released a statement expressing her gratitude to US and Peru officials noting that justice will finally be served. The statement read:

“I was blessed to have had Natalee in my life for 18 years, and as of this month, I have been without her for exactly 18 years. She would be 36 years old now. It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many is going to pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee.”

She added:

“I want to express my sincere gratitude to President Dina Boluarte, the President of Peru, the warm people of Peru, the family of Stephany Flores, the FBI in Miami, Florida and in Birmingham, Alabama, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Birmingham, the U.S. Embassy in Peru and the Peruvian Embassy in the US, my longtime attorney John Q. Kelly who has worked tirelessly on this case, and George Seymore and Marc Wachtenheim of Patriot Strategies.”

While it is confirmed the suspect will be extradited to the US, the precise date of his transport remains unclear.