EXCLUSIVE: ‘I loved every minute of it’: Natalee Holloway’s brother grins as he reveals his delight at seeing her killer in court and says he wanted to stand up and ‘scream my disgust at him’

By James On Nov 8, 2023

The brother of murdered teenager Natalee Holloway has told how he ‘loved every minute’ of seeing his sister’s killer in court.

Matthew Holloway grinned as he recalled facing Joran Van der Sloot for the first time since Natalee’s disappearance in 2005 on the Caribbean island of Aruba.

Van der Sloot, 36, finally admitted to beating the recent high school graduate to death last month after nearly two decades of uncertainty for her family.

His confession came as part of a charity deal that saw him sentenced to 20 years in prison for racketeering and wire fraud after he attempted to defraud Natalee’s parents of money in exchange for information about her whereabouts. He will serve his sentence in Peru, where he is already in prison for the murder of another young woman.

Now in an excerpt from an upcoming episode of ABC newsIn ‘Impact’ x Nightline, given exclusively to DailyMail.com, Matthew Holloway has revealed he was ‘so happy’ to get the chance to look the killer in the eye.

Matthew Holloway, brother of murdered teenager Natalee Holloway, has expressed his joy at finally meeting her killer Joran Van der Sloot in court, 18 years after she disappeared

Holloway was only 16 when Natalee went missing. He said he was grateful that the Dutchman was finally punished for his actions

“I loved every minute of it, the arraignment – it was the first time I had ever visited him,” he said. “I was there, so happy that I really just went to him.”

“Believe me, I wanted to scream my disgust at him from the back row. I hate the man.

“And at the same time, I was happy that he finally has to answer for something he did, something he did wrong.”

Holloway was just 16 years old when his sister disappeared. He is one of several interviewees in the upcoming episode airing this week that explores Natalee’s disappearance.

He appears in the episode Natalee Holloway: A Killer’s Confession, which airs Thursday along with his parents Beth and Dave Holloway, legal experts and reporters who covered the case.

Natalee was only 18 years old when she disappeared on May 30, 2005. The Alabama teen was last seen leaving a bar with Van der Sloot.

The Dutchman was arrested twice in connection with this, but released due to lack of evidence. He consistently denied any involvement in her death, stating that he dropped her off at her hotel before she disappeared.

Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba on May 30, 2005, shortly after graduating. Her parents became concerned when she did not show up for her flight to the US.

Joran Van der Sloot was sentenced to twenty years in prison for extortion and wire fraud after he tried to defraud Natalee’s parents of money in exchange for information about where her remains could be found.

The killer was serving a 28-year prison sentence for the murder of Peruvian business student Stephany Flores, 21, when he was extradited from Peru to the US to face trial

Van der Sloot’s Natalee confession

‘She asked to go back to her hotel, but I just tried to get dropped off a little further from her hotel so we could walk back and I might have a chance to be with her.

‘I’m walking along the beach with Natalee. I find a spot before we get to the Marriott Hotel where I lay her down, we lie down together in the sand and we start kissing.

‘I start feeling her up again and she says no. She says she doesn’t want me to feel her. I insist. I keep feeling her no matter what. She ends up kneeling in the cross. When she hits me in the crotch, I get up and kick her extremely hard in the face.

‘She lies unconscious, possibly even dead, but certainly unconscious. And I see that there is a huge cinder block on the beach right next to her.

“I’ll take this and bash her head in completely. Her face actually collapses. After that I’m scared. I don’t know what to do. I decide to put her in the ocean. So I grab her and I pull and half walk her into the ocean. I push her away. I walk into the ocean up to about my knees and push her into the sea. Then I get out. I’m walking home.

However, the full extent of his sickening crime finally came to light after his extortion operation was exposed by an FBI operation.

Van der Sloot had demanded $250,000 from Beth Holloway in exchange for false information about the whereabouts of her daughter’s remains.

She wired him some of the money, allowing the FBI to begin an investigation that eventually led to his arrest.

His failed extortion ploy meant that prosecutors could prosecute him for the financial crimes and offer him a deal that would force him to reveal everything he knew about Natalee’s death while protecting him from prosecution for the murder.

At that point, Van der Sloot calmly told investigators in chilling detail how he “smashed” Natalee’s face with a cinder block after she rejected his sexual advances.

In a chilling audio recording, Van der Sloot described how Natalee kicked him in an attempt to get him off, prompting him to kick her “extremely hard” in the face, knocking her unconscious.

The killer then ‘smashed her head in’ before carrying her body into the water, walking in until it was knee deep, and pushing her out to be swept away by the waves.

Beth Holloway told her daughter’s killer in court in Birmingham, Alabama: ‘You look great, Joran. I don’t see how you’re going to make it… You’re a murderer and I want you to remember that every time the prison door slams shut.”

Van der Sloot had to be extradited from Peru to the US, where he is serving a 28-year prison sentence for the brutal murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, whom he killed five years after Natalee’s murder.

On May 30, 2010, the Dutchman attacked Flores in a hotel room in Lima. An argument had broken out between the couple after Flores learned he was connected to Natalee’s disappearance.

Van der Sloot grabbed her by the throat and smashed her head against a wall before smothering her with a shirt.

He was later captured in Chile and has been serving a 28-year prison sentence in Peru since 2012.

Van der Sloot was sentenced to twenty years in prison for extortion and wire fraud, in addition to his murder sentence.