The brother of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama high school senior who was killed while on a class trip to Aruba in 2005, said he does not accept Joran van der Sloot’s apology. Van der Sloot, long a suspect in the teen’s death, admitted to killing the 18-year-old after pleading guilty to extortion and wire fraud charges last week, apologizing to the Holloway family in the courtroom and insisting, “I am no longer that person back then than I am today. I gave my heart to Jesus Christ, he helped me through all of this.”
Speaking outside the Alabama courthouse after Van der Sloot was sentenced to 20 years in prison, Holloway’s brother, Matt Holloway, said when asked by a reporter for Court TV if he believed van der Sloot’s apology and his claim that he is now a born-again Christian, “I personally didn’t. He’s been such a liar his whole life – that’s what he is, a psychopathic liar, so I take it lightly.” Although Matt said he believes van der Sloot’s confession, he said, “All the confessions he made, he did it all for himself.”
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As part of his plea agreement, van der Sloot confessed to investigators he bludgeoned Natalee with a cinder block after she declined his sexual advances. He then moved her body into the ocean until the water was up to his knees, at which point he decided to “push her off” into the ocean. Although van der Sloot was a leading suspect in Holloway’s disappearance, he was never formally charged, and Matt said he believes van der Sloot’s father being a high-profile attorney in Aruba interfered in the investigation.
“I think it’s because his dad being Chief Justice on the island,” Matt told TMZ. “I 100% believe he had interference in the investigation process – that he was able to be above the law. Corruption 100 percent. I have no doubt. It would take the country of Aruba to come prove to us and the world that there was not corruption. The burden is on them, not us. It’s really disappointing that Aruba authorities had a killer in their custody and he got away with murder.”
Van der Sloot is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramírez in a Lima, Peru hotel room. Peruvian government issued a decree allowing van der Sloot to be handed over to U.S. authorities to face charges in connection with the extortion case, which landed him a 20-year prison sentence, which will run concurrently with his Peruvian one. Due to the statute of limitations for murder in Aruba being 12 years, he will not be charged in Holloway’s murder. He is currently scheduled to be released in June 2045, when he’ll be 57. Matt said the day van der Sloot is released, he will “whoop his a-.”
