Where Is Natalee Holloway's Killer Joran van der Sloot Today?
Van der Sloot murdered Stephany Flores and Natalee Holloway.
Published Dec. 22 2025, 3:17 p.m. ET
People are wondering where convicted murderer Joran van der Sloot is today after learning he nearly died while incarcerated. Van der Sloot was convicted of murdering his 21-year-old ex-girlfriend, Stephany Flores, according to La República. He beat Stephany to death inside a hotel room in Peru back in 2010. He was also the main suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
Natalee was an 18-year-old high school senior from Alabama who vanished while on a class trip to Aruba. She was last seen with van der Sloot, who claimed that he'd left her on the beach alive. However, according to The New York Post, in 2023, he admitted to killing Natalee before getting rid of her body in the Caribbean Sea. The statute of limitations had run out on the crime, so van der Sloot wasn't charged with the murder.
Where is Joran van der Sloot today?
Joran was convicted of the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores and is being housed in the Challapalca maximum security prison located in Peru's Andes Mountains. He received a 28-year sentence. Before Stephany's murder, van der Sloot emailed Holloway's family and claimed he would give them information about Natalee's disappearance if they paid him $250,000.
The family was so desperate that they paid van der Sloot $25,000 for a down payment, but he gave them false information, and he used the money to go to Lima, Peru, with Stephany. After she confronted him over Natalee's murder, he beat, choked, and smothered her to death. The killer was also convicted of selling drugs in prison back in 2023, and he received another 18 years in prison.
Joran van der Sloot's suicide attempt in prison shocks the world.
Van der Sloot was found hanging inside his prison cell on Dec. 13 from a reported suicide attempt at approximately 9:50 a.m. The staff was serving the inmates breakfast when they entered the cell and found the killer with a piece of a blanket tied around his neck and tied to one of the cell's bars. He was rushed to the infirmary and placed on suicide watch.
Van der Sloot said days later of the attempt, "I was very depressed, as you know I'm a psychiatric patient. Every day I see that the situation is getting worse for us inmates. You can’t be with your family, you can’t touch them or hug them,” he added. "There comes a point when my mind told me I didn’t want to live anymore. I’m aware that I made the wrong decision."
Natalie's mother, Beth Holloway, gave a statement after the killer confessed back in 2023.
"In May 2005, my 18-year-old daughter Natalee Holloway left Birmingham for Aruba to attend her high school graduation trip and was never seen again," she said, per NBC News. "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."