The primary suspect in the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway once claimed that his father buried her under a house — only to retract his story in a sick alleged plot to get money from her grieving family, court documents reveal.
Joran van der Sloot, 35, was one of the last people seen with the 18-year-old before she vanished in Aruba on May 30, 2005.
He will be extradited to Birmingham next month on charges of fraud and extortion stemming from allegations that he tried to swindle $250,000 from the teen’s mother, Beth Holloway, in 2010.
Five years after Holloway was last seen leaving an Oranjestad bar with van der Sloot and two others, the Dutch native met with her mom’s lawyer in Aruba and indicated that the foundation of a house where he claimed his late father, Paul, concealed the girl’s remains, an excerpt from the indictment obtained by Fox News Digital alleges.
“Van der Sloot went on to admit that he had been with Natalee on the night of May 29/30…and that he had thrown her to the ground after she had attempted to stop him from leaving her. Van der Sloot claimed that when she fell down, she hit her head on a rock and died as a result of the impact,” the statement from FBI Agent William K. Bryan reads.
The seven-page excerpt also details how van der Sloot, then 22, reached out to Beth Holloway’s lawyer, who is not named, in March 2010 with an offer to reveal her daughter’s fate in exchange for $250,000.
The agreement — which both Holloway, van der Sloot and the lawyer signed — was eventually modified so that van der Sloot promised to disclose the location of Natalee’s body for an initial payment of $25,000, the document states.
The contract stipulated that the former high school soccer star would receive the additional $225,000 from Holloway once the remains were positively identified.
When Holloway’s lawyer arrived in Aruba on May 20, 2010, they gave van der Sloot $10,000 in cash.
That same day, Holloway also wired $15,000 from her account at Regions Bank in Birmingham to van der Sloot’s SNS account, the document states.
The deal, however, quickly unraveled when the contractor who worked on the home where van der Sloot claimed Natalee was buried said the property was not under construction on May 30, 2005.
The contractor’s information was also verified by satellite imagery from May 29 and June 5.
In a May 17, 2010, email, van der Sloot admitted to Holloway’s attorney that he had concocted the story.
Just days later, on the fifth anniversary of Natalee’s disappearance, van der Sloot strangled Stephany Flores, 21, at a casino in Lima, Peru.
He was later sentenced to 28 years behind bars for the killing and has been in a Peru prison ever since.
Earlier this week, his attorney Maximo Altez said that even a murder conviction hasn’t stopped his client from receiving positive attention.
“All his fans from all over the world sent letters to Joran. I rented him a P.O. Box to receive them. Some letters brought 10 euros, 20 euros, 5 dollars. They were girls who wrote and sent him letters with money, and he answered them all,” he boasted.
Van der Sloot famously got married and fathered a child while incarcerated — though he is now divorcing his wife for a “prettier and younger” girlfriend, Altez explained.
After nearly two decades, no one has been charged in connection with Natalee Holloway’s disappearance. She was declared legally dead in 2012.
“I was blessed to have had Natalee in my life for 18 years, and as of this month, I have been without her for exactly 18 years,” Beth Holloway said in a statement earlier this month.
“She would be 36 years old now. It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many is going to pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee.”