Joran van der Sloot confesses to killing Natalee Holloway, hitting her with cinderblock until ‘her face basically collapses’

Published 1:41 pm Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Nearly 20 years after she disappeared, the details of what happened to Alabama teen Natalee Holloway just before she disappeared in Aruba may have finally come to lights.

As part of a plea agreement in a federal court proceeding involving his extorting money from Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, suspect Joran van der Sloot admitted to murdering Natalee Holloway in 2005.

A portion of his confession interview was released Wednesday.

Van der Sloot admitted to bludgeoning Natalee Holloway, crushing her head with a cinderblock after she refused his sexual advances.

The interview was conducted with van der Sloot’s attorney and was released after he admitted to extortion and wire fraud after he took money from Beth Holloway in exchange for information about her daughter’s whereabouts. The information was not true.

This is what van der Sloot told his attorney about what occurred on the night in 2005:

“She asked to go back to her hotel but I was just trying to get dropped off a little bit further away from her hotel so we could, uh, walk back to her hotel and I might still get a chance to be with her. That’s what I was hoping for.”

After a friend dropped van der Sloot and Natalee off, the pair walked along the beach.

“We start kissing each other,” van der Sloot said. “I start feeling her up again and she tells me no. She tells me she doesn’t want me to feel her up. Uh, I insist. I keep feeling her up either way. Uhm, and uh, she knees me uh, she ends up kneeing me in the crotch.”

Van der Sloot said the confrontation escalated.

“Uh, when she knees me in the crotch, uh, I get up, uh, on the beach and I kick her extremely hard in the face. Uhm, yeah, she’s laying down unconscious, possibly even dead, but definitely unconscious.”

He told his attorney that he spotted a cinderblock on the beach nearby and used it as a weapon.

“I take this and uh, yeah, I-I-I smash her head in with it completely. Uh yeah, her face basically collapses in. Even though it’s dark, I can see her face is collapsed in.”

After he realized what he’d done, van der Sloot said he became scared.

“I don’t know what to do. Uh, and I uh, I decide to taker her and, uh, put her in the ocean,” he said. “Uhm, I uh, I push her off.”

“I walk up to about my knees into the ocean and I push her into the – into the sea. Uhm, and uhm, yeah, after that I – I get out. I- I walk home.”