The prime suspect behind the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2005 is expected to be extradited to the US Tuesday, sources close to her family say.
Joran van der Sloot, who had been serving a 28-year sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, 21, left the maximum security Challapalca jail on Saturday and is due to land in Lima, the country’s capital, at 12pm local time, sources told ABC.
He will be held in a prison in Lima before his extradition to the US, where he will be taken to Birmingham, Alabama, to face charges of extortion.
He is accused of promising to lead Natalee’s family to her body in exchange for $250,000 in 2010.
Natalee was 18 when she disappeared from the Caribbean island of Aruba during a trip with school friends.
Van der Sloot, a citizen of Holland, has been serving a 28-year sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old college student Stephany Flores. He was recently beaten by fellow inmates, according to his attorney
Natalee Holloway, 18, went missing in 2005. The teen had been on a graduation trip to Aruba with her Alabama high school classmates
The teenager was last seen leaving a nightclub with van der Sloot and two of his friends. Her body has never been found and she was declared legally dead in 2012.
Van der Sloot was indicted by a grand jury in 2010 on one count each of wire fraud and extortion, each of which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors in the US allege that van der Sloot reached out to Mrs Holloway asking for $25,000 to disclose the location of her daughter’s body – and then a further $225,000 when the remains were discovered.
During a recorded sting operation, van der Sloot pointed to a house where he said Holloway was buried but, in later emails, admitted to lying about the location, an FBI agent said in an affidavit.
But last month DailyMail.com revealed van der Sloot is to protest his innocence and is set to make the extraordinary accusation that it was actually Natalee’s mother, Beth, who approached van der Sloot offering money if he took her to her daughter’s body.
His attorney, Maximo Altez, said his client wanted to be extradited to clear his name.
‘He was living his life in Aruba and got a call from Beth Holloway, who tricked him,’ he claimed.
‘She said: “Joran, tell me where the body is and I’ll give you $250,000.” He never asked for money, she’s the one that offered.
‘She even gave him an advancement and he never asked for the rest. He only got $25,000.’
Altez explained that his client is a ‘sick person’ and ‘compulsive gambler’, who ‘needed the money to play at the casino’.
He claimed Mrs Holloway ‘took advantage of him’.
Mrs Holloway’s attorney, John Q. Kelly, declined to comment on the claims.
Natalee’s body has never been found and she was declared legally dead in 2012
Van der Sloot is facing extradition to the US over extortion charges after allegedly promising to lead Natalee’s family to her body in exchange for cash. But his attorney has now claimed it was Natalee’s mother, Beth (pictured), who approached him offering cash
Van der Sloot, with whom Natalee had been the night of her disappearance, was detained as a suspect in the case, but ultimately released
In 2012, van der Sloot pleaded guilty to the murder of a young Peruvian woman in 2010
Van der Sloot has changed his account of what happened to Natalee several times already.
Under questioning, van der Sloot is said to have first claimed he dropped Natalee off at a hotel, before later stating he left her alone on a beach.
In his 2007 book, ‘The Case of Natalee Holloway: My Own Story about her Disappearance on Aruba’, van der Sloot admitted lying to police and apologized to the Holloways.
He wrote: ‘I understand that my lies in the past seriously tarnished my credibility.’
He maintained his innocence, explaining that he had left an intoxicated Natalee on the beach, where he said she wanted to ‘watch the stars’.
In 2010, van der Sloot was arrested in Peru for the murder of Stephany Flores, 21, who was killed five years to the day after Natalee’s disappearance.
Peruvian prosecutors accused van der Sloot of killing Flores, a business student from a prominent family, to rob her after learning she had won money at the casino where the two met.
They said he killed her with ‘ferocity’ and ‘cruelty,’ beating then strangling her in his hotel room. He pleaded guilty in 2012.
Natalee’s body has never been found and she was declared legally dead in 2012
Natalee is seen in casino security footage at a table with van der Sloot shortly before her disappearance
It comes after DailyMail.com revealed van der Sloot is ditching his wife of eight years for a ‘prettier and younger’ girlfriend accused of smuggling him drugs in jail.
The killer 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, Dusha.
But van der Sloot asked for a divorce around a year ago after beginning a relationship with Eva Pacohuanaco.
The 24-year-old Peruvian was accused of helping him smuggle nearly 300 grams of cocaine and 140 grams of marijuana into another jail in Juliaca, according to reports in Peru.
It landed the Dutchman an additional seven years on his sentence for the murder of Flores.
Last month, Altez claimed van der Sloot had been severely beaten by fellow inmates and had since been moved to the jail’s medical aisle.
He is due for release in 2038.