Natalee Holloway’s killer Joran van der Sloot, who recently confessed to killing the American high school student in Aruba in 2005, returned to Peru on Tuesday to serve the remainder of his prison sentence in a separate murder.
Van der Sloot, 36, admitted to killing Holloway after she rejected his advances by kneeing him in the groin outside a bar in Aruba more than 15 years ago.
The Dutchman is already serving a 28-year prison sentence in Peru for beating, strangling and suffocating 21-year-old Stephany Flores there in 2010. That sentence started in 2012.
As part of a deal with Peruvian authorities, federal prosecutors agreed to return Van der Sloot to the Andean nation to serve his sentence. He arrived in Alabama in June.
Van der Sloot arrived at a military airport in Lima under police surveillance.
where he has been held since his confession, to the local airport.
DailyMail.com previously reported that the killer is unlikely to ever be prosecuted for his crime in the US thanks to an extended plea deal with prosecutors.
Interpol had previously announced that Van der Sloot would arrive in the Peruvian capital Lima on Monday afternoon.
The US Department of Justice said it does not comment on the timing of such extradition transfers for security reasons.
Van der Sloot had been temporarily extradited to the US to face charges related to Holloway’s disappearance, a case that has attracted international attention over the course of two decades.
He was given a 20-year prison sentence in exchange for providing all the details he knew about Holloway’s disappearance and death.
A few days ago, he admitted to killing Holloway and disposing of her remains. The revelation came as he pleaded guilty to charges of trying to extort money from Holloway’s mother in exchange for information about the body’s location.
US authorities do not have jurisdiction to prosecute Van der Sloot for the 2005 murder on a beach in Aruba, where the statute of limitations for murder has expired. But the revelations have provided long-sought answers for Holloway’s relatives.
The Dutch national was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the US for racketeering and wire fraud, but as part of his plea deal that sentence will run concurrently with another sentence in Peru, where he is serving a 28-year sentence for Flores’ murder.
in 2010.
A photo made available by the National Police of Peru shows Dutchman Joran van der Sloot during his arrival in custody at a military airport in Lima
Van der Sloot, 36, will continue serving a 28-year prison sentence for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old Peruvian woman
Natalee Holloway’s killer remains in the US after the plane that was supposed to take him back to Peru to serve a separate sentence for murder malfunctioned. He arrives here in June
This poster was created and released by the Holloway family after she first went missing in 2005
A 2001 treaty between Peru and the US allows a suspect to be temporarily extradited to stand trial in the other country.
The killer initially pleaded not guilty in federal court in Birmingham, Alabama, to charges that he conspired to get Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, to pay him $250,000 in 2010 in exchange for revealing the location of the her daughter’s remains.
“You are a murderer and I want you to remember that every time the prison door slams shut,” Beth Holloway said in court after Van der Sloot made his plea.
In entering his guilty plea and waiving his right to appeal, Van der Sloot apologized to the Holloway family and said he had embraced Christianity since the murder.
District Judge Anna Manasco sentenced him to 20 years in prison, to be served concurrently with his sentence in Peru, followed by three years of supervised release.
Holloway, an 18-year-old from a suburb of Birmingham, went missing in 2005 during a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba, a territory of the Netherlands.
Eyewitnesses said she was last seen leaving a bar in a car with Van der Sloot on the night of her disappearance. Although her remains were never found, an Alabama judge declared her legally dead in 2012.
“Today ends 18 years of wondering what happened to Natalee Holloway,” U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona told reporters after the hearing.
A judge declared Holloway dead, but her body was never found
Dutch authorities in Aruba arrested Van der Sloot twice on suspicion of murder, but eventually released him due to lack of evidence.
Holloway’s family cooperated with the FBI in a sting operation and transferred some of the requested money, $25,100, to Van der Sloot in 2010, but he then provided false information about where Holloway’s remains were buried.
In sentencing, Judge Manasco also ordered Van der Sloot to pay $25,100 to Beth Holloway in restitution.
After the hearing, Beth Holloway said justice had been served.
“Van der Sloot’s confession means that we have finally reached the end of our endless nightmare,” she told reporters.
‘Natalie’s case is closed as far as I’m concerned. It is over.’