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Joran van der Sloot has admitted to killing Natalee Holloway after she refused his sexual advances. Holloway was reported missing in 2005 while she was celebrating her high school graduation in Aruba. She was 18 at the time.
Joran van der Sloot has been a primary suspect, but authorities never had enough evidence to tie him to her disappearance or murder. He was recently extradited to the United States to face wire fraud and extortion charges for offering to sell the location of Holloway's body to her mother, Beth.
He agreed to confess to killing Holloway as part of a plea deal.
Prosecutors said that van der Sloot admitted that he brutally beat Holloway to death on the beach and then dumped her body in the ocean.
"For 19 years, you denied killing Natalee Holloway. Your lies have caused indiscernible pain. You have finally admitted that you murdered her," Beth Holloway said in a victim impact statement. "You are a killer, and I want you to remember that."
Before he was extradited to the U.S., van der Sloot was serving a 28-year prison sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores.
He will have to return to Peru to serve out the rest of his prison sentence. Then, he will have to return to the United States to serve whatever prison sentence he receives after pleading guilty to the charges in the U.S.
It is unclear if authorities in Aruba will charge him with murder now that he has confessed.