Murder: True Crime Stories - MYSTERIOUS DEATH: The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

In 2005, an American teenager vanished during a high school graduation trip to Aruba, sparking an international search and years of unanswered questions. Natalee Holloway was last seen leaving a bar with three young men, and what followed became one of the most widely covered missing persons cases in modern history. In this episode of Murder: True Crime Stories, Carter Roy examines the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, the shifting accounts and stalled investigations, and the long, complicated pursuit of answers that has kept her case in the public eye for nearly two decades. Head over to our Murder True Crime Stories YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@MurderTrueCrimeStories If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Murder True Crime Stories to never miss a case! For Ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Murder True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios 🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Crime House 24/7, and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow me on Social Instagram: @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios YouTube: @murdertruecrimestories To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi everyone, it's Carter. Exciting news. Video episodes of murder true crime stories are now on YouTube. Every Friday, I'll be dropping a full video episode going deeper into the cases that still haunt us, the mysteries that haven't been solved, and the stories that deserve more than just a headline. Same depth, same commitment to telling the real story. Now you can watch it. Subscribe at Murder True Crime Stories on YouTube.

to catch a new video episode every Friday. This is Crime House. Hidden camera footage, explosive interviews, a teenager who got away with murder, and a young woman who never came home. High school is tough for so many different reasons. There's the social dynamics, academic pressures, extracurriculars, throw puberty into the mix,

and it can be all out chaos. Some people sink in the face of those challenges, but others seem to thrive under pressure. Natalie Holloway was one of those people. In the spring of 2005, she'd just graduated with a stellar GPA and a full ride to college. She'd more than earned her spot on the senior trip to Aruba. But what should have been a chance to celebrate with her best friends turned into a nightmare when she met a local boy named Urin Vander. sleut. What came next changed the island of Aruba forever and became one of the most notorious

cases in true crime history. This is the murder of Natalie Holloway. People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end, but you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder True Crime Stories, a crime house original powered by Pave Studios. New episodes come out every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Thank you for being part of the crime house community. Please rate, review, and follow the show. And for ad-free access to every episode, subscribe to Crimehouse Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Welcome back to another episode of Murder Mystery Fridays, where I'm covering kids. with questions that I can't get out of my head. The ones where the evidence points in multiple directions and every theory feels like a possibility. Remember, these episodes are also on YouTube with full video to search for murder, true crime stories, and be sure to like and subscribe. Today, I'm talking about one of the most well-known

true crime cases in modern history, the murder of Natalie Holloway. It's one of those cases that you can't have, help but follow when it's happening and still sticks with you all these years later. Today, I'll explain how the 18-year-old mysteriously disappeared during her high school graduation trip to Aruba in 2005. The investigation that followed was one of the biggest news stories of 2005, garnering worldwide attention and sparking plenty of controversy. Over 20 years later, shocking developments brought Natalie's name back into the head.

headlines while leaving some of the case's biggest questions still unanswered. All that and more coming up. The ride that steals the spotlight every time it hits the road, that's the Volkswagen TIG one. Its sleek exterior makes a first impression you can't ignore. Step inside to find available full leather seats and wood accents. Under the hood, the available 201 turbocharged horsepower engine gives it a fun to drive edge. Refined Tiguan, you deserve more style. Visit vW.ca to learn more.

SUVW, German engineered for all. In May of 2005, 18-year-old Natalie Holloway was on the trip of a lifetime. She just graduated from Mountain Brook High School in Birmingham, Alabama, with a 4.15 GPA and full scholarship to the University of Alabama, where she planned to study pre-Met. All to say. Natalie had worked extremely hard the last four years and was more than ready to let loose. And that's exactly what she did when she arrived on the island of Aruba on May 26th.

She was there on her high school's unofficial graduation trip, accompanied by 124 fellow graduating seniors and seven adult chaperones. Natalie and her classmates spent the first three days mostly at the beach, the pool, and hanging out at the hotel casino. The legal age for drinking and gambling in Aruba is 18, and the students were taking full advantage. Sunday, May 29th was Natalie's last day in Paradise. It started with a concert on the beach featuring Lauren Hill and boys to men. After that, the party moved to the casino, and finally a bar called Carlos and Charlies that was about a 5 to 10 minute drive from the hotel. after the bar closed Natalie and a friend named Jessica Keola grabbed some street food outside before heading back to their hotel, the Holiday Inn.

And they were both tipsy from a night of partying. And when Jessica turned around, she saw Natalie darting off away from the food truck. She got into what Jessica described as a white car, which was later identified as either a gray Honda or a silver. Nissan. At the time, Jessica assumed Natalie must have found someone to give her a ride back to their hotel. Over the course of their trip, and they'd learned that taxis were hard to come by in Aruba, especially after the bars closed. Plus, Natalie was known to be responsible and reliable, so Jessica wasn't worried about her. She figured she'd just see her back at the hotel.

Even when Natalie didn't show up, her roommates weren't too concerned. The students had been sleeping over in each other's rooms the whole trip and keeping the party going after the bars closed. In fact, the group had been having such a good time. The hotel already decided their school was not welcome back the next year. So Natalie's absence didn't really sound any alarms until the following morning when it was time to head to the airport. The plan was for everyone to meet in the lobby before 10 a.m. so all the students could head back to the airport for their flight. But Natalie was nowhere to be seen.

When the chaperones checked her room, her suitcase and passport were there, but Natalie wasn't. At that point, the chaperones called her mother, Beth, back in the States, and as soon as Beth heard that Natalie was missing, she sprang into action. Beth was in Hot Springs, Arkansas, when she got the news. So the first thing she did was called 911, and later the FBI, the next thing she wanted to do was get to Aruba, ASAP. There weren't any commercial flights that could get her there fast enough,

but luckily, Beth knew who to call. She and Natalie's father had divorced a long time ago, and in the year 2000, Beth had married a man named George Jug-Twitty. He was a big wig in the Birmingham-Alabama metals industry, so the family had some pretty solid connections. One of those connections was able to arrange a private jet bore Beth and Jug. They took along two of their friends, who they thought might be helpful in the search. They left the remaining seat on the jet open for Natalie.

They landed in Aruba around 10 p.m. that night on May 30, 2005. Just about 12 hours after everyone realized Natalie was missing. Beth's plan was to get whatever information they could from the local authorities. She and Jug did speak with the Aruban police that night, but they definitely weren't happy with what they heard. The police didn't seem as concerned as the Twitties were, so Beth and Jug decided to do their own digging. And almost right away, they learned about the last time anyone saw Natalie. Some of her classmates, who are now back home in Alabama, told the family that they saw Natalie talking to a cute, tall, Dutch guy before her disappearance.

For some context, Aruba used to be a Dutch colony, and even though it's now a separate country, it's still part of the kingdom of the Netherlands, and the island has a big Dutch population. All to say, the mystery guy talking to Natalie wasn't necessarily. a tourist. And luckily, Jugg had a nephew on the trip who remembered him introducing himself as Yoron during a game of poker at the hotel casino. Yoron was around the same age as the Mountain Brook students and had apparently been hanging around the group all week. In fact, they'd all been gossiping about who might hook up with him. But not everyone was impressed. One student, Brian Reynolds remembered Yoran nearly getting into a fight with one of his friends and Brian had to break it up.

This was just a few hours before Natalie vanished. Brian also remembered that before the fight almost started, Yoron was talking to Natalie. Well, not only that, but some of Natalie's classmates said they spotted Yoron in the white car that Natalie got into the one outside of Carlos and Charlie's. And he wasn't alone. There were also two other guys they didn't recognize. Beth and Jugg knew they needed to find this mystery guy right away. So Beth asked a hotel employee if she knew a tall Dutch teenager named Yoron who hung around the casino. Not only did the employee recognize the description, she knew his full name. Yoron Vandersloot.

He was a 17-year-old local. And according to the hotel employee, he, quote, tends to prey upon young female tourists, which made Beth and Jug wonder, could he have hurt Natalie? After learning about Yoran, Beth and Jugg tracked down his address. He lived in the nearby town of Nord, and that night they, along with the Aruban police, paid him a visit. Yoran's father, 53-year-old Paulus Vandersloot, answered the door. Paulus was an attorney and aspiring judge in Aruba, while Yoran's mother, Anita, was an art teacher.

According to Paulus, Yoran wasn't home, but he brought the group to where they might be able to find him at the nearby Wyndham Casino. Oddly enough, Yoran wasn't there either, so the group headed back to the Vandersloot house where Yoran had mysteriously abused. appeared. He was there with a friend, 21-year-old Deepak Calpo. At first, Yoran denied knowing Natalie or even recognizing her name. But after some questioning, he changed his tune and admitted that he was

with Natalie on Sunday night when she was last seen. According to him, here's what happened. After they met at the Hotel Casino where Natalie was staying, Natalie invited him to to Carlos and Charlie's. Later, he got a ride there from Deepak and Deepak's 18-year-old brother, Satish Kalpo. Yoran said Natalie had too much to drink and was aggressively coming on to him. After the bar closed, she wasn't ready to go back to her hotel and wanted to drive around with Yoran so they all piled into the Kalpo brother's car. They ended up parking at a nearby Lighthouse where the local teens like to hang out. Yoran said Natalie performed oral sex on him in the car.

After that, Yoran insisted he took Natalie back to her hotel. He even watched as she fell over drunk, stumbling back into the lobby. Yoran said he saw a security guard helping her out, so he left. Yoran even agreed to go to the Holiday Inn with Beth and Jugg, to point out the security guard who'd helped Natalie. But when they got there, Yaron couldn't find him. Beth thought that was pretty suspicious,

but there wasn't much she could do. She needed the police to officially open an investigation. But the next day, Yoron still wasn't questioned by police. And the Twitty said the police initially didn't seem to care very much about finding Natalie. Beth even recalled that local detective Dennis Jacobs insisted on having a bowl of frosted flakes before he took her statement. Natalie's dad, Dave, who arrived on the island on the morning of June 1st, two days after Natalie went missing, had a similar experience. He said that when he went to the police to ask about Natalie, that same detective asked, quote, How much money do you have?

Beth and Dave agreed that the police seemed to think Natalie was just off partying somewhere. But the authorities told a very different version of the story. They said they agreed with the Holloways from the beginning that Yoron and the Calpos were suspects, but they were just trying to wait for them to slip up instead of arresting them right away. They hoped this would help lead them to Natalie. And the Yoruban police claimed that starting on the third day of Natalie's disappearance, Youron and the Calpo's phones were tapped, their emails were monitored, and they were surveilled everywhere they went. Multiple sources close to this case, including members of law enforcement,

confirmed that the Aruban police did not open a missing person's investigation until three days after Natalie disappeared. By the way, on June 2nd, the police officially opened an investigation and announced a $55,000 reward for information leading to Natalie's return. Meanwhile, her photo was plastered all over the news in Aruba and all around the world. In Dave's words, quote, Natalie had become everybody's child. And just a few days later, it seemed like the police finally got their first lead. On Sunday, June 5, 2005, nearly a week after Natalie was last seen, police picked up 30-year-old Nick John and 28-year-old Abraham Jones,

when the two men had worked as security guards for a hotel near the Holiday Inn where Natalie stayed. But their contracts ended the day before Natalie vanished, and they denied that they'd ever seen her. In Aruba, suspects don't have to be charged with a crime until 116 days after their arrest, unless the judge finds that there isn't enough evidence to hold them longer without charge. So the two security guards, while arrested, weren't officially charged with a crime, and the police didn't reveal exactly why they arrested them either. Their lawyer told the media that the arrests seem to be based on vague witness statements

about seeing Natalie get helped by two security guards at her hotel. But these two guys didn't even work at the Holiday Inn. This made Beth furious. She felt like the police were looking in all the room. wrong places, and she wanted to let the world know how she felt. So Beth started giving TV interviews, openly accusing the Aruban government of covering for the van der Sloot family because Paulus was a high-ranking lawyer on the island. And not only that, but it seemed like Yoran got away with a lot of troublemaking.

At 17, he wasn't old enough to legally drink or gamble, and yet everyone in Norris. police included, seemed to know he was a regular at the bars and casinos. Even more concerning, Yoran had a history of violence. In his early teen years, Yoran became aggressive towards his two younger brothers, hitting them and even destroying one of their cell phones. At that point, Yoran also started lying to his parents. Whenever they caught him, he'd spin more lies to get out of it. Instead of punishing him,

And Yoran's parents sent him to therapy, but it didn't seem to work. And before long, it got to a point where he wasn't just lashing out at his brothers anymore. Once, Yoran got into a fight with an unhoused man and threw him off a low bridge into the water below. Another time, he allegedly pushed a classmate through a glass display case at a movie theater. And eventually, Yoran got so bad that his parents moved him into a detached apartment. behind their house. While this made things more peaceful at home, it also had a big unintended side effect.

Uron now had unchecked freedom to come and go as he pleased, and it seemed like no one had the power to stop him. This episode is brought to you by Nespresso. Hear that? That's your next obsession. Every coffee, a new world. Every sip, a new taste.

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Nispresso, what else? Keep exploring at nespresso.com. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa. Whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flame thrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habaniero? More like habanier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon. On June 5, 2005, the same day the two security guards were arrested,

the Uruben government requested help from FBI diving teams to search for Natalie off shore. door. They thought that maybe something had happened and her body was left out at sea. The Eurban government also announced thousands of civil service workers would be let off work early on Monday, June 6th, to join in a massive search for Natalie. All that momentum finally seemed to move the needle forward. On Wednesday, June 9, 2005, 10 days after Natalie vanished, all three of the prime suspects, 17-year-old Yoron van der Sloot, 21-year-old Deepak Calpo, and 18-year-old Satish Calpo were arrested. But there was a problem.

The police didn't have enough evidence to charge any of them with Natalie's disappearance, which meant that 116-day clock was ticking. Another issue was that plea bargains don't exist under the Aruban legal system, so trying to get one of them to take a deal in exchange for turning on the others wasn't an option either. At that point, the only thing detectives could do was question them repeatedly hoping to get something incriminating out of them. Eventually, all three suspects did change their story about what happened that night with Natalie, but they all changed it to the same news story. Like the way Yoran first told it, he and Natalie danced together at Carlos and Charlie's until it closed,

then got a ride from the Calpo brothers. This time, the boys said the Calpos dropped Yoran and Natalie off at a beach, half a mile north of Natalie's hotel. Then the Calpos went home, leaving Yoron and Natalie alone. Natalie was extremely drunk, passing out repeatedly on the beach. but didn't want to go back to her hotel, so Yoran eventually left her there and just walked home. That would have been just about two miles, so it definitely wasn't out of the question,

but the police weren't so sure about it, especially because nobody came forward to say they'd seen Yoran walking on that route in the middle of the night. In fact, Yoran's parents couldn't confirm what time he got home either. But at this point, the police felt like they weren't going to get anything else out of Uron. So eventually, they brought in the FBI to consult on the interrogation and create a psychological profile of the suspects.

That's when they got some chilling insights into Yoron's mind. According to the FBI, Yoran had a lot of superficial charm, but they believed he could be explosive if rejected or told no. He dominated his parents who treated him like the boss of their household and never corrected his behavior. And not only did he go to casinos before he was legally allowed, but on at least one occasion, Paulus even gave his son money for his underage gambling. FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole later recalled some more disturbing traits. She said, quote, I saw that cold-bloodedness about him. He did have some traits that I'm used to that I've worked with before.

He was very glib and charming. He was an extroverted person, and he could turn on the charm. To be clear, when Mary mentioned traits she's worked with before, she was referencing her past work on high-profile cases involving mass murderers and serial killers. And that profile was extremely concerning. But it still didn't provide any clear evidence against Yoron or the Calpos.

However, one thing was obvious by then. Those security guards weren't involved. On June 13th, two weeks after Natalie vanished, both of them were released without ever being charged with a crime. And five days later, the police were onto another person of interest when they thought may have helped Yoron cover up what he'd done. On June 18th, the police spent five hours,

questioning Uron's father, Paulus Vanderslut. Five days after that, on June 23rd, they took him into custody, too. The authorities didn't explain why Paulus was arrested, but they did confirm he would be held separately from Yoran in jail, but it didn't lead to any charges. Three days later, on June 26th, Paulus was released. But even then, Beth was sure Paulus had some, something to do with Natalie's disappearance. Once Paulus got out, Beth confronted him as well

as Yoron's mother, Anita, at the family's home, accusing them of covering for their son. Although they admitted that Yoran was a troubled teen and that they hadn't been able to stop him from drinking and gambling, the Vanderslut said they had no idea what happened to Natalie. But Beth noticed that Paulus was sweating so heavily during this conversation that Anita had to wipe him down with a kitchen towel. Beth took it as clear evidence that he was lying. Still, Paulus stood by his son's story, and there was more bad news coming for the holloways. On July 4th, a judge ordered the Calpo brothers to be released after deciding there just wasn't enough evidence to keep them locked up. The judge did allow prosecutors to continue holding Yoron, but only for 60 more days unless they could charge him.

The pressure was on. But as the weeks ticked by and Yoron's interrogations continued, nothing new emerged. So Natalie's parents tried an old-fashioned way of loosening lips. Money. On July 25th, they announced they were raising the reward. for Natalie's case to $1 million. That was life-changing money in the United States and even more so in Aruba. And the very next day, it looked like someone might actually get that reward.

On July 26th, a gardener named Carlos came forward claiming he saw you were unblocking the road near the Marriott Hotel a little before 3 a.m., the night Natalie disappeared. Carlos led police to a vacant lot near the Marriott where he said he'd seen Yoron, the Calpos, and two large mounds of dirt. And by the time police arrived, the mounds of dirt were gone, but there was a pond there, so the authorities decided to drain it. Unfortunately, the lead went nowhere. There was nothing but trash at the bottom. Chances were, the tip was made up.

in hopes of claiming the reward. There were a few more dead-end leads over the summer, and by mid-August, the police were getting desperate. Time was running out to hold Yoran without charging him, but Yoran did offer up some information that got the Calpo brothers re-arrested on August 26, 2005. During his time behind bars, Yoran admitted that Natalie had passed out multiple times

while he was fondling her, which could be charged, as sexual assault. If that was true, the Calpos could be charged as accessories to sexual assault for being in the car while it happened. It was enough for the police to take the brothers back into custody. And they were hoping this would get the Calpos to confess to finally tell them what happened the night Natalie disappeared. It didn't work.

And not only did neither of the Calpo brothers turn on Yoron, but a judge ordered that they and Yoran were to be released on September 3rd, 2005. They had to remain available to police, meaning they could be arrested if they went anywhere outside the kingdom of the Netherlands. And that suited Yoran just fine because that meant he could just go back to his homeland. On September 6th, Yoran left Aruba to start college in the Netherlands.

Then on September 14th, an appeals court removed the restrictions altogether, allowing the suspects to travel as they pleased. Beth and Dave were furious, but they weren't giving up on finding their daughter. Dave hired a PI to keep looking for Natalie. While Beth took a more hands-on approach, she thought that punishing Aruba's tourism industry was the only way to keep Natalie's case from being forgotten. So in November of 2005, she joined Governor Bob Riley of Alabama in calling for the entire United States to boycott Aruba. After nearly six months of living in an Aruban hotel while bashing the country on American TV, Beth wasn't very popular on the island anymore. She'd even fallen out with her most loyal Aruban allies, but she didn't really care if everyone hated her as long as they kept. looking for her daughter.

Her husband seemed to feel differently, though, in a letter to Alabama's governor, Jug Tudwitty advised against a boycott, thinking it would only make things worse with Arubin officials. It seemed like the investigation was pulling Jug and Beth apart. At the same time, it forced her and Dave to work together, which they continued to do in February 2006 when they tried a new way of holding the Vanders lutes accountable. On February 17th, Beth and Dave sued Paulus and Yoron Vandersloot in civil court, seeking unspecified damages. At first, it seemed like this was just symbolic, after all the Vandersuits were still in Aruba.

But here's the thing. Beth and Dave knew Paulus and Yoran were going to New York. Turned out, Yoran was doing an interview with Fox News's Greta Van Custerin, which aired from March 1st. to March 3rd, 2006. Beth had been on Greta's show on the record a bunch of times, but now, Yoron, who had turned 18 since Natalie's disappearance,

was getting a chance to tell his side of the story, and he went through with it even after he and his father got served after landing in New York. During that tell-all, Yoron stuck pretty close to the story he told while in custody

about going with Natalie to the beach, then leaving her there. But now, Yoran said Satish picked him up in Deepak's car and drove him home, meaning Yoran had lied about walking the two miles back from the beach in the middle of the night. As for why Yoran would leave a drunk foreign teenager alone on a beach in the middle of the night, well, he had an explanation for that, too. According to Yoran, he repeatedly tried to take Natalie back to her hotel, but she refused, saying she wanted Yoran to stay with her on the beach all night. Yoran claimed he didn't know anything bad had happened to her until he got a call from

his father the following night. At that point, Deepak, Satish, and Yoran agreed to lie and say they'd taken her back to the Holiday Inn. Throughout the three-part interview, Yoran seemed to go out of his way to criticize the Holloways, Natalie, and their supporters. Iran even accused the Aruban police of hitting him during one of his interrogations, and for a while, that was it. Over the next few months, the Aruban police got new tips, but none led to any arrests or meaningful leads. So once again, the case went cold, and it only got colder as time went on. In August, 2006, the Holloway's civil suit against Yoran and his father was dismissed. Beth seemed to think an American court would be more favorable in pursuing justice and damages,

but the judge ruled that there wasn't a good reason for the suit to proceed in New York rather than Aruba. By December, the case had warned the family so thin that Beth Holloway and her second husband, Jug Twitty, officially separated and divorced in 2007. At that point, it seemed like Yoran was feeling pretty confident that he'd never face official charges in the case, because that's when he made a shocking decision. In April 2007, Yoran published a book about the case, and it was something else. Although Yoran stuck to his new story about leaving Natalie alone on the beach, there was an interesting wrinkle. because he also referred to himself as a, quote, pathological liar. Surprise, surprise.

Later that month, on April 20, 2007, the Yeruban police searched the Vandersluits home again. They didn't really explain why, but they were extremely thorough, even digging up the family's backyard. Inside the house, they seized diaries and a computer. Less than a month later on May 12, 2007, and almost two years after Natalie disappeared, the Calpo residence was also searched again.

No big announcements were made at the time, but the authorities must have gotten something new because on November 21, 2007, Yoran was arrested a third time while in the Netherlands. The Calpo brothers who were in Aruba were also arrested again. All three men were suspected of sexual assault and murder. But apparently the authorities, The authorities didn't have much evidence, and on December 1st, the Calpos were released again.

Yoron followed on December 7th. Then on December 18th, the authorities gave up and officially ordered the investigation closed. But the story wasn't over. Not even close. A few months later, in February 2008, a Dutch news program aired some hidden camera footage that appeared to show Yoran confessing to disposing of Natalie's body. It was all part of a sting by a Dutch crime reporter who was convinced that Yoran was guilty. He'd gotten close to Yoran by pretending to be a friendly drug dealer. In the video, Yoran was smoking weed in his new friend's car,

and while he still insisted that he hadn't killed Natalie, he admitted that she died while he was with her. He said that after they had they had sex on the beach, she started shaking and suddenly died. Then, Yoran said he panicked and called a friend for help. They loaded Natalie onto the friend's boat and dumped her body in the ocean without even making sure she was actually dead. The video was incredibly incriminating, but according to Yoran, he was just high and telling his friend what he wanted to hear. The Dutch court seemed to agree. A judge ruled that the hidden camera footage wasn't enough to justify a new arrest,

especially in the absence of any corroborating evidence. But there was one silver lining for the Holloways. After the sting operation aired, Yoron reportedly went into hiding. He was supposedly afraid for his life after people all around the world saw his recorded confession. After that, the case went quiet for a while, until there was another unexpected twist.

On February 10, 2010, Paulus van der Sleut died of a heart attack while playing tennis in Aruba. He was 57 years old. Yoran went back to the island for the funeral. While he was there, he apparently thought up another way to profit from his notoriety. In March 2010, he contacted Beth Holloway's lawyer and offered to tell the truth about what happened to Natalie once and for all, in exchange for $250,000. Well, Beth made a smart move. She went to the FBI.

They encouraged her to go forward with the deal in case Yoran actually revealed something real. Beth's representative told Yoran that he'd get a 10% down to. payment on the $250,000 and the rest would be delivered after he revealed the location of Natalie's body. Yoran agreed. On May 10, 2010, he received $10,000 in cash along with a $15,000 wire transfer to his Dutch bank account. The FBI didn't provide that money. Beth was on the hook for it. Yoran led Beth's representative to a house in Aruba, where he said he'd concealed Natalie's remains in the foundation while it was being built. He even managed to blame his recently deceased father, saying Paulus helped him bury Natalie.

But records and satellite images proved that workers didn't even break ground on the house until way after Natalie vanished, so this was obviously yet another lie. Yoran eventually confirmed in an email that he knew the information he provided was quote, worthless, but he kept Beth's $25,000 anyway. At this point, Yaron had committed extortion. Theoretically, he could be arrested for that in Aruba, then extradited to the United States to face trial. But according to the FBI, they weren't ready to bring charges yet, so they decided to buy their time. With $25,000 burning a hole in his pocket, 22-year-old Yoron left Aruba. and headed to Peru, where another tragedy was right around the corner.

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Available now on CBC Listen and wherever you get your podcasts. In 2010, 22-year-old, Yoron Vandersuit left Aruba and headed to Peru. According to his mother, he was supposed to return to the Netherlands for inpatient mental health treatment, but went to South America instead. Sure enough, he quickly lost the $25,000 he'd just extorted from Beth, Natalie Holloway's mother,

and by May 30, 2010, the fifth anniversary of Natalie's disappearance, he was pretty broke. But he was still hanging around the poker tables, looking for a chance to buy back in. But before he could get back to the cards, Yoran left a casino in Lima, Peru, with a 21-year-old woman named Stephanie Flores Ramirez, who he'd met just a few hours earlier. Stephanie was a promising young poker player, and she'd reportedly just won 5,000 Peruvian Soles,

which is a little under $2,000 U.S. dollars, in a tournament. Still, she wasn't ready to go all in as a professional poker player. player yet. She was in her junior year at the University of Lima, studying business administration. In her free time, she loved to play soccer and honed her business skills by helping her four brothers run their event planning business. It's not clear why she left the casino with Yoran, but she followed him into his hotel room at about 5 a.m. A little after 7 a.m. Yoron briefly left, then came back with bread and two cups. of coffee. But at 8.36 a.m., he left the hotel for good after telling the staff not to bother

his girl in the room. In fact, he told him not to go into his room at all. It wasn't until three days later on June 2nd that hotel staff finally went inside and found Stephanie's dead body. She was faced down with a broken neck and bruising on her body. Her credit card was. Her credit cards were missing along with the 5,000 solas she won playing poker. This time, the evidence against Yoran was overwhelming. There was surveillance footage of him and Stephanie at the hotel, witnesses, and a body in the hotel room he booked. More than that, Stephanie's father was a retired race car driver who'd run for president in Peru.

So the family was well known with high-level connections to the government and law enforcement. Police immediately launched a manhunt across South America with every expectation of locating Yoran, especially because they already knew which way he'd gone. He'd tricked two Peruvian taxi drivers into taking him across the border into Chile, then cheated them out of payment. Now they were cooperating with the police. One day after Stephanie was found dead, Yoran was arrested about 2,000 miles away in Chile. A police convoy transferred him back to Peru where he arrived on June 5th.

Yoron confessed to killing Stephanie, claiming he did it in a rage because she'd used his laptop without his permission and discovered information about his connection to the Natalie Holloway case. While that confession was reported as fact in U.S. tabloids, it raised eyebrows in Peru. killing in a sudden fit of rage carried only a three to five years sentence there, while premeditated murder could bring up to 35 years. So it seemed like Yoran came up with his confession specifically to get a shorter sentence. Plus, according to the police, a search of Yoran's laptop proved there was nothing on it about his connection to Natalie. What's more, they knew that Yoran wasn't exactly shy about.

about his connection to Natalie, so even if Stephanie did find something, why would that make him angry enough to kill her? So they took his confession with a grain of salt. Instead, they believed Yoran planned the murder to steal Stephanie's poker winnings. And everyone else in Peru seemed to agree with that theory. On his way to be arraigned for first-degree murder and robbery, Yoran was briefly marched past members of the public who pelted him with rotten vegetables. By June 10th, Yoran was so desperate to get out of Peru that he offered to trade information on the location of Natalie's body for extradition to Aruba. But neither the Peruvian nor the Aruban authorities were interested in this deal. They didn't trust Yoran to tell the truth, which meant he would stay in Peru and be tried they.

It took 18 months, but on January 11, 2012, Uron pleaded guilty to charges of murder and robbery. He received a 28-year sentence close to the maximum and was ordered to pay 200,000 solace of restitution to Stephanie's family. At the time, that was about $75,000 U.S. dollars. Accounting for time served while awaiting trial, that meant Yoran could be extradited to the U.S. in terms. 2008. At that point, he would face the extortion charges that he'd finally received after what

happened with Beth. It offered some sense of closure to see Yoron behind bars. Not only that, but the day before Yoran's sentencing, an Alabama judge declared Natalie dead. Dave had requested this while Beth objected. Dave wanted Natalie's little brother to be able to use her college fund, and And he wanted to be able to take Natalie off his family health insurance plan. Constantly having to see little reminders like that was agonizing for Dave. And he still had his two little girls with his second wife, Robin, to think about. The one thing that he and Beth did agree on was that this wasn't the end of the search. Unfortunately, it ended up pushing them even further apart.

In 2018, Beth sued oxygen media for $35 million over a docu-series called The Disappearance of Natalie Holloway. She claimed she was tricked into providing a DNA sample for comparison with remains found in Aruba, without telling her it was for a television show. She also claimed the show raised her hopes under false pretenses by letting her believe they might have found, Natalie's remains. In reality, the series was scripted and the producers knew the bones they were testing weren't her daughters. According to the lawsuit, the producers knew the bones weren't even human. They turned out to be pieces of a wild boar skull, allegedly planted by a supposed witness who appeared in the documentary. And the stars of that documentary were Dave,

and his private investigator. Clearly, Natalie's parents were no longer on the same page at this point, to say the least. But on January 10th, 2020, some sources claimed both parties agreed to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it can't be filed again. And that's where things stood until 2003, and the case took a final surprising turn. That may, the new president of Peru agreed to temporarily extradually extra-exercise. Yoran van der Sloot to the United States, although he would have to return to finish his sentence in Peru. Yoran arrived in the U.S. in June, 2003.

Finally, American prosecutors had some leverage over him. There were mountains of evidence in the extortion case, so if Yoran wanted any kind of leniency, he was going to have to give them something in return. On October 18, 2003, as part of a plea agreement, 36-year-old Yoron pleaded guilty to extortion and wire fraud charges. He was sentenced to 20 years to be served concurrently with his 28-year sentence for killing Stephanie Flores. That meant he'd be adding just seven years to his total sentence and be set for release in 2045 at the age of 58. The U.S. could have insisted on a consecutive sentence, but Yoran gave prosecutors what they really wanted. His formal confession to murdering Natalie in recorded form.

So here's the final story for now. Yoran claimed that the Calpo brothers left him and Natalie alone on the beach near the Marriott Hotel. Natalie rejected Yoran's attempts to have sex with her, so he then attempted to sexually assault her. Natalie fought back, kneeing Yoron in the crotch as hard as she could, outraged at being rejected. Yoran kicked Natalie in the face hard enough to knock her unconscious. At that point, Yoran said he noticed a cinder block nearby, grabbed it, and used to you. it to smash her head in. Although it was dark on the beach, he said he could see that her face was caved in.

After that, he dragged her body into the ocean and pushed her in. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations for homicide in Aruba has since expired, so Yaron will never be charged with Natalie's murder. But ultimately, both of Natalie's parents believe, Yoran is guilty and that his final confession most accurately describes the murder itself. Beth issued a statement right after Yerun's confession. She said, quote, Yoron van der Sloot is no longer the suspect in my daughter's murder. He is the killer. For Beth, reaching the end of this nightmare was kind of closure.

There was nothing she could do to bring Natalie back. But she did everything. to make sure she got justice. Beth is the epitome of the saying, a mother's love knows no bounds. She moved mountains to ensure that Natalie wasn't forgotten. And thanks to her perseverance, she never will be. Thanks so much for listening.

I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder, True Crime Stories. Come back next time for the story of another murder and all the people that affected. murder true crime stories is a crime house original powered by pave studios here at crime house we want to thank each and every one of you for your support if you like what you heard today reach out on social media at crime house on tic talk and instagram don't forget to rate review and follow murder true crime stories wherever you get your podcasts your feedback truly makes a difference and to enhance your murder true crime stories listening experience subscribe to crime house

Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad-free. We'll be back on Tuesday. Murder True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy, and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon, Natalie Pertzowski, Lori Maranelli, and Russell Nash.

Thank you for listening. Thanks for listening to today's episode of murder, true crime stories. Not sure what to listen to next, check out America's Most Infamous Crimes, hosted by Katie Ring. From serial killers to unsolved mysteries and game-changing investigations, each week Katie takes on a notorious criminal case in American history. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous Crimes Now, wherever you listen to podcasts. A music star, whose biggest hit was called Romantic Homicide, has just been formally charged with first-degree murder, eligible for the death penalty.

This is Vanessa Richardson, host of Crime House 24-7. 21-year-old singer David Anthony Burke, known as David, faces first-degree murder, sexual acts with a minor, and mutilation of human remains in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose dismembered body was found stuffed in bags inside his abandoned Tesla. Prosecutors say he committed sexual acts against her when she was under 14, and she was a witness in an investigation against him. When those claims allegedly threatened his music career, authorities say he made her disappear.

Hear the rest of that story and never miss another on Crime House 247, where we cover Breaking True Crime News Daily. Follow Crimehouse 247 wherever you listen. to listen to podcasts, so you never miss a story as it breaks.