‘Natalee will be 18 forever in my heart’ – Mother Beth Holloway speaks from heart after killer admits to violently killing her daughter
Published 11:28 am Thursday, October 19, 2023
The mother of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teen who disappeared on a 2005 senior trip in Aruba, confronted her daughter’s killer in federal court Wednesday.
Beth Holloway spoke from her heart in a victim’s impact statement, in court and with a press conference after Joran van der Sloot pleaded guilty to extorting money from the grieving mother.
Van der Sloot agreed to a plea bargain in that case which included his detailed confession of how he killed Natalee.
Here are a few of Beth Holloway’s statements on the case:
“Today, I can tell you with certainty that after 18 years, Natalee’s case is solved. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. It’s over.”
“Joran van der Sloot is no longer the suspect in my daughter’s murder. He is the killer. He finally confessed that he killed Natalee. He described when and how he killed her. He said after killing her on the beach in Aruba, he put her into the water and that was the last that he ever saw her.”
“You terminated her potential, her dreams and her possibilities when you bludgeoned her to death I 2005.”
“You took away my son’s big sister. You changed the course of our lives and turned them upside down.”
“Natalee will be 18 forever in my heart. “Natalee would be 36 years old now. I think about what kind of doctor she would have become. She would be married. Have children. My grandchildren.”
“She had real hope. The hope that filled her heart fills mine, and I will wake up every day remembering who she was.”
“Your lies and manipulation, taunting us with fake news interviews and wild stories of what happened to her, have caused indescribable pain and harm to my family and me. The grief I feel lives way down deep in my soul.”
“Joran, while you’re living your life in prison until you’re an old man, and by the way, you look like hell Joran, I don’t see how you’re going to make it, I’ll live the rest of my life with wonderful memories of a beautiful young lady who had her whole life in front of her.”