Natalee Holloway suspects Joran van der Sloot of divorcing wife for ‘younger, prettier’ girlfriend

The prime suspect in Natalie Holloway’s disappearance is divorcing his wife and mother from his daughter for a “prettier and younger” girlfriend accused of smuggling drugs to him while in prison, his lawyer has told DailyMail.com.

Joran van der Sloot has put his family aside and now wants to be extradited to the US to clear his name on charges related to Natalee’s unsolved murder case, his lawyer Maximo Altez said.

The revelations come after the convicted killer, who is currently in a high-security prison in Peru for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, initially asked to appeal the extradition order.

Van der Sloot, 35, insists he did not kill Natalee, who was 18 when she disappeared after leaving a nightclub with him and two friends on the Caribbean island of Aruba in 2005.

Her body was never found and she was declared legally dead in 2012 at the request of her father, Dave Holloway.

Van der Sloot filed for divorce about a year ago because he was now in a relationship with a ‘more beautiful and younger’ woman

His new girlfriend is Eva Pacohuanaco, who was accused of smuggling drugs to him while in prison in Peru

Van der Sloot married accountant Leidy Figueroa, 33, in a private ceremony at Piedras Gordas Prison in July 2014, when Leidy was seven months pregnant with their daughter.

Just months after she tied the knot, she gave an enthusiastic interview to DailyMail.com claiming that her new husband was “gentle, sensitive, kind” and “not a monster.”

The pair met while Leidy was selling candy and cigarettes to inmates at another of Van der Sloot’s former prisons – Miguel Castro Castro, in Lima.

The lax prison rules led Leidy to start visiting him twice a week and the pair exchanged a stream of saccharine love letters.

They even named their daughter Dusha Trudie Van der Sloot, 8, after Van der Sloot’s grandmother, Trudie.

But their unlikely romance began to fall apart in 2020 after van der Sloot was accused of bringing drugs into prison with a girlfriend, Eva Pacohuanaco, Altez said.

“Leidy continued to see him for a while,” the lawyer added. ‘Joran had a bunch of girlfriends…many girls came to visit him…but Leidy was the most loyal.’

Despite his infidelity, it was van der Sloot who filed for divorce about a year ago because he now had a relationship with ‘more beautiful and younger’ Pacohuanaco, according to Altez.

The killer now has fewer female visitors due to tighter security at his current prison, Challapalca, in Puno, Peru, but he “still writes girls and they send him pictures,” Altez added.

The lawyer said that Leidy “still visits” because she “likes the punishment” and “is nothing without” her husband, who helps her financially with family money.

Van der Sloot’s father, Paul, was a judicial officer in Aruba. Both he and Joran were arrested and released without charge in connection with the case. Paul passed away in 2010.

Pacohuanaco, pictured here in surveillance footage reportedly showing her smuggling drugs to her lover in a Peruvian prison in 2020

Natalee disappeared from the Caribbean island of Aruba in 2005 during a school trip

Van der Sloot’s lawyer also revealed that he now wants to be extradited to the US so that he can face charges related to Natalee’s disappearance. He is currently in a prison in Peru

His wife and mother of their eight-year-old daughter flew into a rage when she was told her husband was filing for divorce, Van der Sloot’s lawyer said.

Leidy had previously given a gushing interview to DailyMail.com, telling how her murderous husband was “gentle” and “not a monster”

Altez said Figueroa flew into a rage when he told her Van der Sloot was filing for divorce.

She asked me, “How could you?!” You were the Godfather of our marriage. She got angry. And she’s partly right.’

Altez also revealed that his client reversed his extradition after initially asking him to appeal.

The federal charges against Van der Sloot stem from an allegation that he attempted to blackmail Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway, promising to lead her to her daughter’s body in exchange for $250,000 in 2010.

A grand jury indicted him that year on one count each of wire fraud and racketeering, each of which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

“Joran wants to go to the US to prove that he did not ask Mrs Holloway for money,” Altez said. “He realized that he can be acquitted of the charges.”

Van der Sloot’s decision to abandon his wife and family goes against the promises he made to Leidy before they got married.

In a love letter, seen by DailyMail.com, the killer suggests he intended to raise enough money to buy his young bride a house – though he won’t be released from his current sentence until 2038.

He wrote, “While we’re saving money and in a few years I’ll buy you your own house, rather our house.”

Natalee’s mother, Beth, (right) recently welcomed the news that Van der Sloot was about to be extradited to the US, saying the family is ‘finally getting justice for Natalie’

Love letters: Van der Sloot wooed Leidy with lots of saccharine notes he wrote in Spanish while in prison

Van der Sloot was convicted of the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores (pictured)

Instead, he has turned to Pacohuanaco, who was accused of helping him smuggle nearly 300 grams of cocaine and 140 grams of marijuana to another jail in Juliaca, according to reports in Peru.

It gave the Dutchman an extra seven years in his sentence for the murder of Flores.

Natalee had been to Aruba with a large group of friends to celebrate high school graduation.

She is last seen leaving a nightclub with Van der Sloot and two of his friends, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, on the last night of the trip.

All three were arrested, but charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence.

In 2010, van der Sloot was arrested in Peru for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, who was murdered five years after Holloway’s disappearance.

Peruvian prosecutors accused van der Sloot of killing Flores, a business student from a prominent family, in order to rob her after learning she had won money at the casino where the two met.

They said he killed her with “cruelty” and “cruelty,” beating and then strangled her in his hotel room. He pleaded guilty in 2012.

How long it takes for Van der Sloot to be extradited depends on a number of factors, including arranging transportation to fly him to the United States and a US agreement that he will be returned to Peru to serve his sentence. to sit.

After a trial in the US, Van der Sloot was scheduled to be sent back to Peru to complete his sentence for the murder of Flores and a separate drug trafficking charge in prison.

Leidy declined to comment.