Natalee Holloway Suspect Joran van der Sloot Extradited to U.S.

Joran van der Sloot has arrived in Alabama to face extortion charges, according to CNN.

The key suspect in Natalee Holloway‘s 2005 disappearance was officially handed over to the FBI and flown from Peru to the United States on June 8. 

Joran, who is serving a 28-year prison sentence in Peru for the 2010 killing of 21-year-old college student Stephany Flores, is being temporarily extradited to the U.S. in connection with a fraud case involving Natalee’s mom Beth Holloway.

Natalee was 18 years old when she disappeared during a graduation trip to Aruba more than a decade ago. And although Joran—who, per the FBI, was seen leaving a bar with Natalee and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe before she went missing—was detained shortly after, he was never officially charged in the case and denied involvement in her disappearance. 

However, five years later, Joran was indicted by a grand jury in Alabama on both wire fraud and extortion charges for allegedly trying to get $250,000 from Natalee’s mom Beth in exchange for details on her daughter’s remains, as well as information regarding her death, per NBC News. (Although Joran initially claimed to know where Natalee’s body was buried, he later admitted to providing “worthless” information.)