Imagine going on your dream vacation with friends after a stressful school year. It should be stress-free, but that wasn’t the case for 18-year-old Natalee Halloway. Halloway was on a class trip to Aruba when she was reported missing after she didn’t attend her flight home. Her disappearance captured Americans’ interests as all had one question: what happened to Natalee Halloway?

So what exactly happened? 

In May 2005, Halloway and her classmates arrived in Aruba for their class trip. While on her trip, she met Joran van der Sloot at the hotel and was last seen with him alongside two friends, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, the night she went missing. Halloway’s friends and chaperone could not locate her in the hotel room the following day. Halloway’s belongings hadn’t been tampered with, so there wasn’t any way she had left the island. Halloway’s mother, Beth Halloway Twitty, and stepfather, Jug Twitty, were notified of her disappearance and immediately rented a plane to get to the island. At this time, van der Sloot is being interrogated by local authorities about Halloway’s location, where he admitted to being with her but stated he had dropped her back off at her hotel.

 On June 1st, 2005, police began to create search groups for Halloway, who still hadn’t been found, with volunteers from Texas, Dutch Police, and the local authorities, and they were even able to get F-16 fighter planes from the Netherlands. Unfortunately, even with all the help, Halloway’s body was not found. The authorities began to make arrests of possible suspects, including former security guards from the hotel Halloway was staying at, van der Sloot’s father, and a boat DJ. All of these suspects would be released, but the killer remained out there and uncaught. Eventually, the authorities arrested the people. Halloway was last seen with van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers.

However, when questioned, their stories didn’t match up. While van der Sloot stuck to his story of allowing Halloway to walk back on her own, the Kalpoe brothers claimed they dropped Halloway AND van der Sloot at the beach by her hotel. The Kalpoes were eventually released, but the judge ordered van der Sloot to stay in custody longer. Investigations continued with van der Sloot still in detention, but they came up empty, and eventually, in September 2005, van der Sloot was released, but the investigation continued. 

After van der Sloot was released, he faced a civil lawsuit from New York, but the judge dismissed the case due to the lack of jurisdiction. A few weeks later, he met with Fox News to talk about his side of the story, where he indulged in how he was affected by the allegations he faced, which would later be found to be true. The investigation continued until 2007 when van der Sloot and the Kaploes were arrested again but released a few weeks later. 

In 2008, van der Sloot stirred up trouble by unknowingly admitting that he had disposed of Halloway’s body after she collapsed on the beach. However, when van der Sloot was made aware that the interview was recorded, he stated that he was lying at the time. Later, van der Sloot contacted Twitty’s lawyer, John Q. Kelly, offering the location of Halloway’s body for $250,000. Kelly agreed to this, and a month later, in May 2010, van der Sloot showed Kelly that Halloway’s body was buried in the foundation of a house. Van der Sloot would eventually admit to lying about where Halloway’s body is and took the money to play in a poker tournament in Peru. In Peru, on May 30th, 2010, van der Sloot killed Stephany Flores Ramirez in his hotel room and was later arrested on June 3rd. A few months later, van der Sloot pleaded guilty to the murder of Flores and was sentenced to 28 years in prison. A day before van der Sloot’s sentencing, horrible news for the Twittys was declared after an Alabama judge said Halloway to be dead after seven years of searching. 

So where are we now?

It’s been 11 years since van der Sloot was sentenced. He has finally come clean about what has happened to Natalee Halloway. Back in 2010, van der Sloot was indicted for wire fraud and extortion against Halloway’s mother. This case brought van der Sloot back to the United States after Peru agreed to extradite him in May of 2023, to which he pleaded not guilty. In October of 2023, van der Sloot entered a plea deal where he would be found guilty of wire fraud and extortion in exchange for information about Natalee Halloway. Van der Sloot agreed and admitted to killing the girl back in 2005 and disposing of her remains. The judge, Judge Anna Manasco, sentenced him to 20 years for the extortion and wire fraud charges that he will serve in Peru. We finally have answers to the once-cold case about a teenage girl who was thought to be missing after a trip to Aruba.