Going West: True Crime - Natalee Holloway // 350

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

In May of 2005, a large group of Alabama high school students headed off to Aruba for an unofficial graduation trip. The day before they were all set to leave, an 18-year-old girl from the group went off with young men from a bar and wasn't seen again. When the rest of the students headed back home with no sight of her, an intense investigation began, with the prime suspect confessing numerous times, including just recently on October 18, 2023. But is he telling the truth? This is the story of Natalee Holloway. BONUS EPISODES Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-west-true-crime/id1448151398 Patreon: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES  https://www.wvtm13.com/article/natalee-holloway-van-der-sloot-news/45564407 https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info/natalee-ann-holloway https://www.deseret.com/2005/6/12/19896907/lax-supervision-on-aruba-trip https://www.foxnews.com/story/transcript-holloway-chaperone-speaks-out https://www.eonline.com/news/1388112/joran-van-der-sloot-confessed-to-brutal-murder-of-natalee-holloway-judge-says https://abcnews.go.com/International/caused-death-van-der-sloots-gory-peru-murder/story?id=10923141#:~:text=I%20had%20blood%20on%20my,of%20his%20assault%20on%20her. https://www.cnn.com/2015/05/28/world/natalee-holloway-new-tip/index.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. So today's case has been on our list for a while. Thank you Emily, Priscilla, Zach Monica, and many others from social media. But especially with the very, very, very recent update, we received this mass influx of requests for it. And with what's new,

although it is frustrating and we know many of you share feelings with us on why. We wanted to relay the highlights of what has happened in this case since it started back in 2005. We know that a lot of you guys already know this case and probably some of you have been following it since 2005 when it happened. I know that I was also following this case as well, but we're gonna give you guys the latest information, so thanks again for tuning in. And also, it's 350 episodes today. Crazy! Crazy! 350 episodes going west!

They're flying by! They really are! Like how do we get here? We were just at 300! Two a week! Two a week! That's how we're doing it. That's how!

You're right! Exactly! All right guys, well let's get into today's episode. This is episode 350 of Going West, so let's get into it. Natalie Holloway. New developments in the case that gripped the attention of the world when Alabama teen Natalie Holloway went missing in Aruba. And 18 years later, her family finally is getting some answers. A sense of closure for the family after nearly 20 years. A federal judge says the chief suspect in

the 2005 disappearance of Natalie Holloway in Aruba has admitted that he killed her and disposed of her remains. I know that he was responsible for the device of Natalie. He's a monster. Natalie was an 18 year old high school student on a class trip to Aruba when she disappeared in 2005. She was last seen leaving a nightclub with Vander Sluden, two other men. Almost two decades after Natalie Holloway banished in a rubah, the man,

Lawn suspected in her death, has confessed in grizzly detail to killing the Alabama team. Today, I can tell you with certainty that after 18 years, Natalie's case is solved. As far as I'm concerned, it's over. It's over. Natalie Ann Holloway was born on October 21, 1986, which is actually the day after this episode comes out in Memphis, Tennessee to parents Beth and Dave Holloway. Now some reports state that Natalie was born in Clinton, Mississippi, but either way, she and her younger brother, Matthew, spent most of their childhood living in Clinton, Mississippi. When Natalie was about seven years old, her parents' Beth and Dave divorced, and she and

her brother were mostly raised by their mother Beth, living in Clinton. But they did have a relationship with their father as well. And then seven years after that in 2000, so when Natalie was 14, her mom married her partner, George Twitty, who was a businessman, and they moved to his native Alabama, more specifically to the small upscale suburb

of Mountain Brook in the city of Birmingham. Natalie and Matthew's dad Dave stayed back in Mississippi where he worked as an insurance agent, whereas their mother Beth got a job at the local school system there in Alabama, so she was very close to her kids. Natalie was a great student in Alabama and was a part of the National Honor Society, but she also enjoyed extracurriculars like being on her high school's dance squad. But Natalie had big dreams of becoming a doctor. So after graduating from Mountain Brook High School

in the spring of 2005, she was just months away from attending the University of Alabama on a full scholarship. Roll Tad. New York, I'm gonna say that. Yeah. But first things first, there was a big graduation trip planned for 125 other graduates of her school, which

was a five day trip that all the teens were excited to go on because it was too beautiful a rubah, located amongst other Caribbean paradise with its clear blue waters and white sand beaches. So, even though there was over 100 students on this trip, and 7 adult-shaperones, this trip was considered an unofficial one, meaning that it wasn't sanctioned by the school. So some students hung back because it didn't really feel like a safe idea, and one student said later, quote, �I remember thinking I wouldn't go someplace not in our country.

I don't think I'd feel safe without having been there before, in case anything happened. But Aruba was and still is basically considered a safe place for tourists, and one of the safest islands in all of the Caribbean. And these unofficial graduation trips were a bit of a trend at the time. And with the Aruba Drinking Age being 18 instead of 21 in Alabama, many of the new grads were excited about going on this trip to celebrate the summer and the next chapter of their lives, and of course, have a few drinks.

Well, the chaperones included four male faculty members of Mountainbrook's High School and Middle School, and then three of these men's wives, one of whom was a local travel agent named Jody Bareman, who actually organized this trip. And Jody later said about the students' quote, the chaperones were not supposed to keep up with their every move. Another chaperone, a teacher named Bob Plummer, later said quote, we met with the students every day to make sure that everything was fine, that, you know, nothing was happening, that everything was going okay with them. So that said, all 130-ish people arrived from Alabama to the Northern end of Aruba on

Thursday, May 26, 2005. And they settled into a holiday in resort along Palm Beach. Now this particular location is like a four star, ten story hotel that includes two swimming pools, a spa, and also a casino. 18-year-old Natalie Holloway reportedly was living her trip to the fullest and enjoying time with her friends, including her two best friends, Liz Kane and Claire Fierman. But for many of the students, seemingly including Natalie, the drinking was getting a little

out of hand. Now, there was allegedly so much partying in room switching that the holiday in told them that they wouldn't be welcomed back. And I think this would be totally normal for teenagers who are just entering adulthood and you know visiting a place where you can drink alcohol three years earlier than you can back at home. So this behavior totally makes sense to me, but Natalie's two best friends did say that the drinking was, quote, kind of excessive. However, Shapiro and teacher Bob Plummer later had this to say, quote, there's a lot of misinformation and lies and rumors and innuendos about how the students

were acting on this trip. You know, a lot of people said they were at a control, they were drinking too much, they were just drunk all the time, and that could not have been further from the truth. As I've told other people, there were a lot of families at this resort with their kids, and I can't tell you how many adults came up to us, the chaperones down there,

and told us how well behaved, how polite these students were. But either way, the students were all having a lot of fun until everything came to a head four days into their trip on Sunday, May 29, 2005, the day before they were all scheduled to go back to Alabama. Later, Shapirom Bob Plummer was asked if he saw Natalie on that day. And his response was, quote, yes, we met with them the students earlier that day, and then saw them again that afternoon or that evening at dinner in the casino.

And then he continued by saying that it was probably that night in the casino that he last saw Natalie. So after dinner, Natalie and many other students and friends headed out in Organs Stod, which is the capital of Ruba and it's a beautiful, colorful, small city right on the water. And this area was pretty close to their hotel as well. That night they were at a bar called Carlos and Charlie's, which is a chain of casual Mexican restaurants that are mostly speckled across Mexico and also the Caribbean, though they do have a couple US locations as well in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Las Vegas, Nevada.

But since they had dinner, all the students were drinking and just kind of mingling, and this is where Natalie continued to hang out with a young man and his friends who were living in the area and attending the International School of Aruba, and she decided to leave with them. They had actually met back at the casino, and Natalie's friends invited the three of them to come to Carlos and Charlie's with them. Now her friends last remember seeing her get into a silver car with the three men at around 1.30 a.m., which would be the last time that anybody would see Natalie. Shapiro and Bob Plummer later said quote,

The next morning when we were getting the first set of buses off to the airport, and they had checked off the first bus that was going to take the first set of students back to the airport, and came out of the bus, and were getting ready to get the second group together, of which Natalie was a part, and at that point some of the students came up and said, quote, we've not seen Natalie since last night. At that point, Bob and the other shaperones asked everybody that they could questions, especially her friends and roommates, and would back to her room to gather her things and bring it all to the front of the resort, or like the front desk area. Because they still didn't think that something bad had happened.

More so that she was out late and possibly forgot that she had to get on the bus the next morning. But he had to leave with the other students. So Natalie's mom Beth was called. And at that point, the family pretty much had to figure this out themselves. So everyone had to return to Alabama since Natalie didn't arrive back to the hotel

nor to the airport for her scheduled flight, and she missed it all together. So her mom Beth and her stepfather, along with a few of their friends, took a private jet to Aruba right away to begin their search. The police were quickly made aware of the situation, but it was Natalie's family that went down to the bar to have them pull surveillance footage to see who exactly these young men were that Natalie left with. And due to the fact that the guys that she was with lived in this area and actually frequented

this bar often, the bar manager knew exactly who one of the men was, a 17 year old Dutch national by the name of Yorin Van der Sloot. So before we continue, let's talk about him for a second. So Yorin was born on August 6, 1987 in Arnhem, Netherlands to a lawyer and an art teacher. But when he was just three years old, the family picked up and moved to Aruba, where Yorin became an honor student at the nonprofit private school, the International School of Aruba, which is where he was still attending when he met Natalie like he told us.

Now at the school, Yorin played football or soccer in America and tennis, but he was never known to be a very good kid, like he was known to be a liar and would often sneak out of his family house to go out to bars and casinos with his friends. Now that Natalie's family finally had a name, they headed down to the Arubin Police and explained the entire situation, telling them that they needed to check him out. So they went with police down to Yorin's family's house to look for her. And Yorin feigned ignorance at this point. He said that he didn't know who Natalie was, but then eventually remembered.

Then he and his friend Deepak Kalpo, remember that name for later, explained that they had in fact met Natalie the night before when they took her to the lighthouse on a rashi beach, which is at the tip of a ruba in about 20 minutes drive from the bar, because they said that Natalie wanted to see some sharks. Now once they did this, they left the beach and claimed that they dropped Natalie off back at her hotel at 2am and then didn't see her after that again. But, that she seemed to be in trouble when they dropped her off. Now, you're in told Natalie's parents and police that after Natalie got out of the car, she fell on the floor and wouldn't let them help her.

After that she was approached by a dark man in a shirt similar to the ones that the security guards wear. But he said that they saw this as they drove off, and since she didn't seem to want their help, they just basically left. Before that break, Heath told us urine story about leaving Natalie to be approached by an unknown man outside of her hotel. But the police weren't even sure if they could believe Yorin and his friend Deepak, especially since they started their story, with the statement that they didn't know who Natalie was. But if what they were saying was true, they had to look for this supposed man and see if anyone did see her outside the hotel that night, because she certainly never made it

back to her room. By midday on Monday, May 30, 2005, hundreds of locals joined police to search the island for any sign of the 18-year-old Alabama native. Worry that she could have entered the sea, 50 Dutch Marines since Aruba is a country in the kingdom of the Netherlands, extensively searched the shorelines and the sea for any sign of her. Remember that too. A lot of places around including the holiday in had surveillance footage luckily, so it was easy to discover that Natalie did not appear on the footage outside of the hotel, meaning she never made it back there after all.

But I will say there was a lot of discrepancies about whether or not the cameras were in working order that night, but it really does not seem to have been confirmed. While keeping tabs on urine and his buddies because police really were like they were surveilling them, they were monitoring their emails, they were tapping into their phones. Still while doing that, police were also kind of becoming convinced, likely based on urine and depock statement, that these two former security guards in the area were possibly behind whatever happened to Natalie. So one week after she went missing, they arrested two men for suspicion of kidnapping and murdering her.

Abraham Jones and Nick John. But after holding them for eight days, they couldn't find enough concrete evidence to confirm that they were involved in what happened to Natalie, so they were released. But before this release occurred, others were arrested on suspicions of Kidnappen murder in the very same case. You're in Vander Slute and Deepak Kalpo, along with Deepak's brother Satish, since all three of them were together and last seen with Natalie on the night that she vanished. And this arrest occurred on June 9th, so 4 days before the former security guards were released. And you might be wondering how they were able to do all this without proper evidence.

But at this time in Aruba, you could arrest someone on suspicion alone. So that's exactly what police did. However, to go any further with the charges, they did need evidence, so they continued to search as hard as they could for anything that could link them to Natalie's probable death. But it truly was as though she just vanished into thin air, because there was nothing of her left behind. Now over the course of the next week, police were informed that your story wasn't entirely true, as you could have guessed, and that instead of Yorin being part of those who dropped her off that night, that Yorin and Natalie together were dropped off

at the Marriott Hotel's beach, which is next door to the holiday in where Natalie was staying. So when he was questioned about this, Yorin said yes, he was at the beach with Natalie alone, but that he did not hurt her. Then he changed to story yet again, and claimed that the CalPo brothers were the ones to take her back to her hotel after this, so he didn't know what ended up happening to her. So there's essentially just a ton of like finger pointing going on at this point. So during the time that they were detained, their attorneys had the opportunity to state

their client's cases during a hearing, and a judge ruled to release the CalPo brothers as it did seem as though urine was involved in Natalie's disappearance on his own because he was caught in so many lies while the CalPo's proved that they had been home or it seemed as if they had been home after dropping urine and Natalie off at the Marriott Beach. And while all this is going on and Yorin remained in police custody, an intense search continued across the land and sea of Aruba to find any trace of Natalie, but every search failed to find anything. Two months after the Cal Poly brothers were released, Yorin finally was too, and he continued

to stay in the area and hang out with the CalPo Brothers, with basically everyone around town believing in his guilt. But he was roaming free, just trying to clear his name, and a lot happened over the years, but we mostly just wanted to share highlights and not like bog you guys down with seemingly irrelevant information, because there was other people coming forward, claiming to have but we mostly just wanted to share highlights and not like bog you guys down with seemingly a relevant information because there's other people coming forward claiming to have seen her in other places, but those were never confirmed and Remains were eventually found, but those were not found to be hers either so it's like there was a bunch of stuff that happened

but all of it just proved to not be helpful to the case, so we're not gonna say it. I mean, as it goes in most cases, there's usually sightings of a missing person that don't end up helping the investigation or aren't relevant in any way. Yeah, and I mean, in this case, like there was so much information that I was sifting through while researching it, and I just didn't want to include anything

that was gonna confuse you guys because all this information is already really confusing, especially because of all the different interviews that Yorin was a part of and all of the different stories that he told. So in March of 2006, the year after Natalie went missing, Yorin did an interview with Fox News, and basically in the interview, Yoren stated how he and Natalie met at the casino and how they were all hanging out in Carlos and Charlie's, and then later, when he and Natalie were on the Marriott Hotel beach, that she wanted to have sex with him, but he didn't have a condom and had to get home because he had school in a few hours.

So Satish Calppo picked him up, even though it felt clear that both Kalpo brothers did not leave the house after arriving once they dropped Yorne and Natalie at the Marriott Beach. And thus, Yorne left Natalie on the beach by herself for someone else to do something to her. So this is him coming forward saying, yeah, I was hanging out with her that night and here's how it went. And here are the friends of hers that I was talking to and what we were drinking and what we were losing at the casino.

Blah, blah, blah. And then it's like, oh, but then I left her at the beach because I had to go to school. And what's really interesting about this case is that it keeps, it just keeps progressing. It's one lie. Oh, I got found out. Oh, now I need to extend that. Okay, yeah, I was hanging out with her, but I didn't see her after that.

Oh, yeah, I was at the beach with her, but then I had to go home, because I had school, it's like, it just keeps progressing. All these lies. It's like whiplash. Yeah, and you just keep getting found out every time. But at this point, this is what he's saying.

His story is, and he's telling the public, I'm an innocent man, I just took her to the beach and then I went home. And we are going to discuss just how much of a piece of dog shit this guy really is. So then, the year after this, in November of 2007, urine and the cowbo brothers were arrested once again in Natalie's case, for manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm that resulted in death. Where you're in, confess to killing Natalie accidentally,

and that he and his friends covered up the murder and sent her body out to sea. Which is very different from the story he told the year prior. Exactly, so year after year, it just keeps getting worse. But just over a week later, a judge ordered the release of the Calpobrothers. And a week after that, Yorn was released as well due to lack of evidence. Then, two years later, Yorn did another interview with Fox News, and for what feels like

the trillionsth time, but definitely not the last, you're in change to story again. Now for this interview, we do have a long clip of Hodgpodge clips because this interview is actually really lengthy, and we felt like it would be best if you heard it from him, and not from us transcribing or summarizing it. And by the way, they do bring up the Rattisynilot, and that's the hotel in Casino right next to the Marriott and holiday in. So take a listen to this. Vanderslough went on the record with us in 2006 claiming he had left Natalie alone on

a beach. Then in February of 2008, Vanderslough was shown on hidden tape saying that Natalie had collapsed on the beach and that he had disposed of her body. Well now his story changes again. Yuron contacted us claiming he wanted to tell us the truth about what happened that night. He produced his evidence three telephone conversations saved on a digital chip. Yuron claims the recordings are conversations between his father and him. If authentic, the recordings suggest that Yur Iran told his father what happened to Natalie

on a weekend, we slipped away and we went halfway around the world to interview Iran VanderSloat. May I should ask you, what do you ultimately want on this? I guess we're just all to be over, for just, yeah, that's it, just for me to be able to get on with everything and feel okay, that's what I ultimately went out of it. And I know if you guys look into this, that you're going to find out, I think, with, definitely with everything I gave, if you're really going to look into it, you're going to find, stumble across something that, I'll get you more answers. I'm sure about it.

You met a guy in February of three years ago who said he was interested in something. What was the interest in? He was interested in me bringing them a blonde girl Where did you meet this guy? Because he knows in a robot. What's his name? Elcher and the animal, it's you don't even know if it's real name That's the problem. Is he in a Ruben? I? Don't know I don't know where he's from. What language did you speak with him? I spoke Dutch, I spoke Papumento and he grew up in English too. About how old a man?

Old a man? I can't, I can't say how old he was 30-40. Did he ever say what he wanted a blonde girl for? No. Did you have any sort of guess what it was? Was it sort of the code, you know, he's speaking code, any sort of guess what it was? I mean, was it sort of the code, you know, you're speaking code, you sort of knew what he wanted? No, I wasn't really occupied with that at all. I had school going, I had other things that friends, I wasn't really like,

I mean, I wasn't even concerned about his name to tell you the truth. Did you offer any money? Yeah. Have a specific number. Yeah, you offered me money. What was the number? I don't know who I want to say, but you offered me money for it. Well, you mean, come on. I mean, look, we've come halfway across the world. You know, you want, this is what you've told us, you're on, that you, you know, you want to investigate because everybody seems to think something happened and, and you told us

something very different happened. And there's a possibility that she's still alive. Yeah. So I need to, I need to be able to get this information out of you so that I can, you know, get my company to continue to finance business. Going to take us to Venezuela to find this guy. Yeah. We got to look from there.

That's what I want. I know that's why you contacted me. At least that's what you told me is that you want that. If I get that information, we can track it down. Yeah. So that's why I need to pull these facts out of it because that will corroborate the chip and will help me in the investigation.

Okay, well, you only gave me $10,000. Okay, no, but that's later. But between February and May, did he ask you, did he talk money with you on a specific number? No. All right. What happened the day you met Natalie? Well, the day I met Natalie, I remembered what he said.

And as I was leaving the casino to leave, I went by the radisin' casino when he was there. I spoke with him. And he's like, yeah, so then he's when he's asked me for, like, okay, all I want is to, you know, if you bring me a blonde girl, let me know, give me a call on this number right here, give me a phone number, and then he said, to meet them at the beach by the, by the marry-up,

if I ever got a girl, you would give me $10,000. Where did you make the hard plans with this guy to pick up Natalie at what point? Like, not every hard plan, so just I told him that, okay? I have a girl with me and he's like, okay, come to the, like, not ever hard plans. It's just, I told him that, okay. I have a girl with me and he's like, okay, come to the, come to the Marriott Hotel. At what time?

Uh, one in the morning or something? 12. I mean, it was just so, but I mean, that doesn't, it just doesn't sound right to me that's, that sort of loose plans. I mean, why is a guy gonna go sit outside the Marriott at one o'clock in the morning? I don't know either.

Yeah, nobody wasn't even him there. He wasn't even there when I came there. All right, well, it's okay. So you go, so Deepak and Satish pick you up. Now, they're not in on this at all, right? I don't really want to talk about them at all. Well, but, you know, if you want us to do this, you're on. If you want us to investigate this, you got to tell us because want us to investigate this, you gotta tell us because, you know,

you've trusted us this far. I do trust you guys. Let's just, can I talk about you with you just then about it one second, just about them? Yeah. But not on camera for- No, no, just tell us, you know what? Because you know what?

We've gone so far down the road. Is that we might, this is your chance to tell us, if you're telling the truth this time, because you and I have spoken before. If you're telling the truth this time, you know, let's get it all out there and we will pound the pavement to try to chase us down. And um, but we can't have wild goose chase because a minute we hit another wild goose chase, it's over. Yeah. It's over. And you look like, you know, you look like, you look like a liar because we've had one conversation with you. You really have to make a decision that you trust us, that you want us to investigate this fully and lay it all out.

Yeah, no, but what I just wanted to ask you is I don't want, like, maybe if I say something bad about them, they can sue me or whatever, or I don't know. No, look, they're not going to, I can't say that. That's very good. I mean, look, these guys, I mean, if. No, look, they're not going to... I can't say that. I can't say that. I can't say that. I mean, look, these guys... I mean, if you tell the truth, it doesn't hurt. You lie it does.

So if you lie about them, yeah, you're vulnerable. If you tell the truth, no. No, I agree. Yeah, okay, well then, yeah, they know about it also, but that's why I was... Yeah, they know about it also. When did they why I was what yeah, they know about it also. When did they know about it? What point? That night I told them. On the way to Carlson Charles?

On the way to Carlson. No, on the way back when we were getting a drink at Carlson Charles. Okay, explain it to me. They pick you up at your house. I just told them all I told them was we meet in a group of girls at Carlson Charities who asked me to go out with them. And then when I was in the bar, she was all dancing on the bar, coming over to me and telling me to come dance with her. And that's the moment when I talk to them and said like, okay, well, I can get someone offered me $10,000 just to bringing them somebody and what do you guys think about it? $10,000, okay. That was the thought behind it.

Tell me what happened. Then I got out, stepped out of the car, and she was with me once to the beach with her. We were just making out whenever there was anything else. Then at first I didn't see anyone there, I didn't know anything, and I was like making out with everything else. And then, first I didn't see anyone there, I didn't know anything, and I was like, okay. Whatever, you know, it's not gonna happen. Then I saw a guy, and he came, and he just handed me a bag, grabbed the girl by the arm,

and he went to the boat that he had in the water. What did Natalie say? She said nothing, nothing till she was on the boat, and then she was like, hey, what's going on? You're not coming with me or... I don't know. She wasn't... wasn't panicking or anything. And then when it was on the boat,

and the boat went away, I still heard like, uh... you know, like, what's going on. I think she was pretty drunk. That's what, uh... main thing was. But she didn't struggle with this guy to go to the boat? Mm-hmm. Didn't you think that was odd? No, because I said we were gonna go on a boat. You told her that. Mm-hmm. That was my story to go to the boat. Mm-hmm. Didn't you think that was odd? No, because I said we were gonna go on a boat.

You told her that. Mm-hmm. That was my story to go to the beach there that we were gonna go on a boat. In every video of your, in like every interview, he just looks so smug and smiley. It's like he loves the attention. He absolutely does.

And in this interview, it's interesting because he can't seem to find very many answers well, like when he's asked if this guy was a Rubin, you're and didn't seem to know. And then you're and also conveniently claims that the man spoke to him in multiple languages that he didn't know how old he was. Like, it just feels like lies. Well, we already know that he is a liar. Well, yeah. And it's also like he's trying to point the finger in a different direction,

you know, while still being involved. Because another little interesting thing is he had told somebody that he thought that he could become a millionaire through his involvement in Natalie's story, like by keeping the, like the real killer secret and extorting him and then also getting money through media and even extortion because in 2010, he offered to tell Natalie's parents where her body was for $25,000, but he was trying to get $250,000

and he took the money and provided nothing. So he was arrested yet again for this in 2010. So it really just goes to show you how much of an evil piece of shit this guy is. Like, like he's willing to lie, he's willing to put a family through all of this grief and then extort them for money as well. Well, and his reason for the extortion was,

oh, they put me through all this shit for years, you know, pinning her murder on me when I'm innocent. But it's like, then why are you chained? If you're innocent, you would have one clear story. You wouldn't change it a million times and grant all these interviews and look all smug and smiley. Like, if you're innocent, you tell the same story and you'll leave it at that and you'll

leave it alone. Kind of seems like the trait of a narcissist. Totally agree, but really quick, let's get back to that 2008 interview that we just played. So I do need to summarize a little bit of it because the entire interview is like the length of a whole going west episode. So essentially, Yorin said that he trafficked Natalie to this unknown man who wanted a blonde girl so that he himself, Lauren, could get this payout and that his own dad paid off two police officers to keep this secret so that she could swiftly be taken to Venezuela where this guy was

and then Lauren wouldn't get into trouble. And you weren't even claimed to have this conversation between him and his father taped, but when that tape was aired, many pointed out that it didn't sound like his dad at all, but instead, like, you're in putting on a voice. Probably was. Yeah. And obviously by saying all of this, he is implicating himself in a crime, like saying, I trafficked a woman, like that is a major crime So that wasn't gonna bowed well for him and since there wasn't any evidence to prove why he was saying was true He simply recanted his confession after the interview and maintained his innocence once again in her disappearance saying actually That wasn't true. I didn't do anything. Yeah, he's like give a 30 plus minute interview saying that you did He's like I did it I did it and then they're like hey one in interview and he's like, let's give a 30 plus minute interview saying that you did. He's like, I did it. I did it

And then they're like, hey, one in interview and he's like, okay, so yeah, I did it and then immediately after he's like, oh no I didn't do that. I actually didn't. What up with that? He's just an idiot. So meanwhile the search for Natalie It very much continued with her own father setting up intent searches in the water with search dogs around the area and more. But then, in 2010, another young woman was murdered, and guess who the prime suspect was? Stephanie Flores Ramirez was born on July 22, 1988 in Peru to parents Mary-Lena and Ricardo, and she had four loving and very doating brothers. Later on, three years before her murder, Stephanie began studying

at the University of San Martín de Pores right there in Peru to study business administration while she was modeling on the side. She was hardworking, incredibly kind, and loved by everyone who knew her. And as far as her hobbies went, she was a poker player, and she was really good. So on May 30, 2010, exactly five years after Natalie went missing. 21-year-old Stephanie Flores

participated in a tournament at the Atlanta City Casino in Lima, Peru, and this is where she lived. So she told her dad that she was off to play in a tournament at the Atlanta City Casino in Lima, Peru, and this is where she lived. So she told her dad that she was off to play in the tournament and that she would come home when it was over, since they obviously lived together. But to her father's surprise, she never made it home. Stephanie's family was pretty high profile and very well known in the area and they still

are, due to the fact that her father, Ricardo Flores, was a presidential candidate and even a former race car driver. And their family was like incredibly close, so when Stephanie didn't come home, her father called around to her brothers to ask if anybody had seen her, but nobody had, so they called the police to file a missing persons report. Now police took the case quite seriously pretty early on and headed to the hotel in Casino where this tournament was to see if maybe they could see her on surveillance footage. Well guess what? They did see her on footage and they actually found her, but she wasn't alone.

She was with a brunette man at about 3am while the tournament was still going on. And just two hours later, just after 5am, the two left together and were seen on footage entering a hotel room together upstairs. And who was the room registered to? Yorin Vanderslute Over an hour after entering the hotel room together, the man, aka Yorin, was seen leaving by himself and returning to the room with two cups of coffee and some bread that he got from the gas station next door. Then shortly after returning to the room at around 9am, Yorin left once again with just

his backpack and even told the hotel staff, quote, don't disturb my girl. It took two days for someone to enter room 309 and when they did, 21-year-old Stephanie's body was found inside a badly beaten and with a broken neck. And for those wondering, Lima Peru is a round of four-hour direct flight from Aruba, but that's not where Yorn returned to after killing Stephanie.

He instead fled to Chile, where he was found interested within just a few days. And just like with Natalie's disappearance, Yorn proclaimed his innocence of Stephanie's murder until four days later when he finally confessed. So this was all happening around the time, like I said earlier, that urine was arrested for extortion against the Holloway family. So this asshole is just committing crime after crime. And it was actually with the extortion money that urine was able to get to Peru to go to that poker tournament and murder Stephanie Yeah, and for those of you who are following the case from the beginning I mean Natalie's case from the beginning and thought that you know during that point between

Natalie's murder and Stephanie's murder that possibly urine was just full of shit and just you know doing all of this for Cloud well now we know Obviously that he was caught red-handed, murdering Stephanie. So yes, he's very much capable of murder, and yeah, he's definitely a murderer. Well, and his reasoning for killing Stephanie was pretty weak. And it, to me, it felt like a lie again. His reasoning was that he left Stephanie alone in the room for a brief moment, only to come back and find her on his laptop to find out that he was connected to Natalie's disappearance, and he stated that this sent him into such a rage that he killed her.

So he said, quote, I hit her in the face exactly on top of her nose. I think she started to faint. It affected me so I grabbed her from her neck and strangled her for a minute. There was blood everywhere. What am I going to do now? I had blood on my shirt. There was also blood on the bed, so I took off my shirt and put it on her face, pressing hard until I killed Stephanie.

But there's also a lot of talk that she rejected him and that's what made him angry. I mean either way I believe that he's telling the truth about how he killed her because it does match. I mean they do have her body. But then also I of course believe that he killed her in general. But I feel like it's like oh I left for a minute and she was on my laptop and she connected me with this case then I'm innocent of and so I just killed her.

It's like, what? No, I think what it really is is that Yorn is just a fragile, fragile little man. To win a, whenever anybody rejects him, he acts like a child and he spends into a rage and he becomes an abuser, he becomes a killer. Yep, super pathetic. So this was, you know, very frustrating and disheartening for Natalie's family to learn

about and mostly obviously for Stephanie's family because, you know, they knew that he should have already been locked up for murdering Natalie, which is what everyone truly felt had happened. So after he went to prison for Stephanie's murder, Natalie's mother Beth went to visit him and said that she felt like it was almost freeing to know that he was finally locked away even if it wasn't for her own daughter's murder. But the BS continued as Yorn claimed that he was intimidated into confessing to Stephanie's murder, yet even so, 24-year-old Yorin pleaded guilty on January 11, 2012, and was sentenced

to 28 years in prison in Peru, meaning that he'd be set free by the age of 52. And just one day later, at the request of her father, Dave, Natalie Holloway was officially declared legally dead. Yorin was extra-dited to the United States this year in June of 2023 for the extortion of the Holloway family and for fraud, but he originally pleaded not guilty to each charge. But as part of a plea agreement for that case, just the day before we're recording this episode on October 18th, 2023, it's been announced that 36-year-old

Yorin Vanderslute newly confessed to killing Natalie Holloway back in 2005. Now, this comes as a frustrating development because he's been in prison for about 10 years now. So he has had a lot of time to sit and think about what he's done. But this fucking loser has falsely confessed numerous times and been caught lying too many times to count. So it's hard to know if what he's saying now is even true but Natalie's family is allegedly, you know, pleased with this confession and finally ready to put their beloved daughter's case to rest.

In her mother's words quote, the never-ending nightmare is over and to me, that's better than closure. So we are gonna play a clip of the brand new confession now. So we are going to play a clip of the brand new confession now. She asked to go back to her hotel, but I was just trying to get dropped off a little bit further away from her hotel. So we could walk back to her hotel and I might still get a chance to be with her. That's what I was hoping for. So what happens? Yeah, Deepak drops me off at a place, a little right of the, of the Mario hotel known as the Fisherman's Hut. This place is not so far from, you know, the next hotel is the Mario

and the next hotel after that is another Mario, which is a time-sharing, then it's the, the hall de en. is another mario which is a time sharing then it's the the hall de en. Well we walk along the beach, do Deepak and Tish get out, come with what how? Deepak and Tish leave, they leave, they go back to their home. I assume they go back to their home. They get in their car and they leave. I'm actually with, I'm actually with, with Natalie walking along the beach. I find the space before we get to the,

before we get to the Marriott Hotel, where I lay her down, we lay down together in the sand and We start kissing each other. I start I get it to kiss me again. We start kissing each other and I start feeling her up again and she tells me no It tells me she doesn't want me to the feel her up I insist I keep feeling her up either way. And she needs me, she ends up kneeling me in the crotch. When she needs me in the crotch, I get up on the beach

and I kick her extremely hard in the face. extremely hard in the face. Yeah, she's laying down unconscious possibly even even dead but definitely unconscious and I see right next to her there's a there's a huge center block laying on the beach. When you say center block looking at the walls of this place, isn't like those. The exact same center blocks. I see a huge center block laying on the beach. I take this and I smash her head in with it completely. Her face basically collapses in.

Even though it's dark, I can see your face collapsed in. Afterwards, I don't exactly know what... I'm scared, I don't know what to do. And I decided to take her and put her into the ocean. So I grab her and I have pool and half walk with her into the ocean. I push her off, I walk up, up to about my knees into the ocean and I push her off into the into the into the sea. And yeah, after that I get out, I walk home.

So yeah, obviously very, very disturbing, but it is just so hard to know if what he's saying is true because her body still has not been found. Also this confession only came during talks of a plea deal for the extortion case so that he could get a 20-year sentence that will serve concurrently with his sentencing for Stephanie's murder. So it just feels like kind of a convenient time to confess when it's going to benefit him, you know? Of course, of course it does. And he, by the way the way, this confession is from October 3rd, but it took like two-ish weeks to come out. And I mean, it's only left all

of us with more questions like, I'm not going to say that all bodies thrown into the ocean come back and are found, obviously, but it's hard for me to believe that he walked her body to the shoreline, waited in only to to his knees, and pushed her off, and that was enough to completely get rid of her, despite the incredibly intense searches of the entire area and the sea that began just hours later. Like especially with how clear the water is there, and how many tourists would have been up and at the beach just a few hours later, and I also imagine that the way he is claiming he killed her would have been extremely messy for lack of a better word. So how he would have gotten home and

not left a massive trail of evidence at the beach and at his house is just confusing. And like, where's this cinder block? That's what I'm wondering. Where is this bloody cinder block? Like, did you pick it up and take it with you? And you just somehow didn't leave any flesh kind of gruesome but brain matter even at the scene, no blood. Like exactly. It's crazy. And then yeah, those are the, you have to bring that up though.

Like it's super disturbing, but it's like that is the reality of what he is saying happened. So where is all that evidence? That's a, that's a huge crime scene. Yeah, and when we were talking about this, like being pushed off it out into the ocean earlier, you and I were talking about it. I didn't take into account that that water is so clear. It's so clear.

It's very, very clear unless you get out to a certain, you know, obviously to a certain depth. Yeah, you gotta get way out there. But I imagine, unless like, you know, the waves were very heavy at that time, and maybe really pulled her out into the middle of the ocean, it's hard for me to believe that, you know, none of the helicopters or anything like that had found any part of her, any part of her clothing

or anything. Yeah, any piece of her body, any piece of her clothing, like you're saying, like any tiny little trace of anything after such an intense search. And again, all he's saying he did was walk into his knees and push her off. How is that enough to completely conceal every piece of her body and her clothes forever? Yeah, well, and one of the biggest problems here is that evidence was really lost because it's not like they found out that he had been at that Marriott Beach with her, you know, a day after it happened. They found out a couple weeks later. So some of that evidence is obviously gone at that point. But still, if you're searching in that general area, and I don't wanna overstep,

because I don't know how big this area is, but if you're searching in that general area, you would think that you would find some sort of evidence there. Well, even though they didn't know that right away, like you're saying, the searches were everywhere. It was all over the island. A rubat isn't that big, you know?, so I mean, it's just everybody would have been

looking, especially because the Maria hotel is right next to the holiday in where she was saying. So that would have been within their primary search area, that beach. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you know, regardless of all of this, regardless of all of this, I still, I do believe that he is Natalie's murderer. Oh, you know, without a doubt. It's just

whether or not he's telling the truth about what he did with her body. I completely agree with you. I mean, it is clear that urine is culpable and capable of spilling lie after lie when it's convenient for him. So I would personally find it very hard to believe that this confession is the full truth, but obviously I think that at least part of it is true at least, and I do believe that he's responsible. But what is most important is that there's always the possibility that more evidence against him will come forward during the next couple decades that he's in prison and for now

It feels like the Holloway family can start to move forward at 18 years After losing their beloved Natalie Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of going West Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Tuesday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. Yes, and for everybody who knows this case well, obviously you know we didn't include everything like I had touched on earlier. There is so much to this story, but a lot of it does feel irrelevant just feeling very

confident that urine is involved. So, we just didn't wanna again bog you guys with seemingly irrelevant information. We could have made this like a two or three part episode, but we just included the most prevalent information, especially with the recent update. Yeah, and thank God that piece of shit is in prison now, and that the Holloway's can finally,

you know, have some relief in their lives after this long battle with justice. Still, it just feels like this man should never get out of prison. Oh, 100% agree. And you know, and the scary thing is that if he's already, you know, been responsible from murdering two girls, is it possible?

I mean, is it possible that he's responsible for more? But also, what an idiot, by the way, like, you are suspected of one murder. And then you go and commit another one? Like, he could have gotten away with Natalie's murder if he would have just shut his mouth, which obviously we don't want that to happen. We don't want anybody to get away with murder, but it's like like considering her body hasn't been found and with the laws in Aruba, like if he didn't kill Stephanie, he would not be in prison right now,

well, except for the extortion thing. But it's like, he, but it's because of his own, like serial crime committing, you know? Yeah, I don't think he can help himself, honestly. Yeah, he's a criminal, so, I don't know. This man can help himself honestly. Yeah, he's a criminal. So I don't know, this man is not a man at all. He's a monster. Yeah, 100% agree. All right, guys, well, for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5%

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