Natalee Holloway: Netflix's 'Taken' Shows Unseen Joran van der Sloot Video. Where the Case Stands Now

More than 21 years after Natalee Holloway vanished in Aruba, her case is back in the spotlight. Netflix’s three-part documentary series “Taken: Natalee Holloway” is now streaming, and it includes footage that had not been seen publicly before: a 2010 sit-down between Joran van der Sloot and the Holloway family’s lawyer.

Van der Sloot confessed in 2023 to killing Holloway. He has never been charged with her death, and her mother, Beth Holloway, is now pursuing a case in the Netherlands.

What the new Netflix video shows

The third episode features a recorded FBI-led sting operation from May 2010, carried out with Aruban authorities, USA Today reported. In the hazy video, van der Sloot sits in an Aruba hotel room across from John Q. Kelly, then Beth Holloway’s attorney.

Van der Sloot agreed to a $25,000 deal, $10,000 up front and $15,000 wired, in exchange for information about Holloway’s death and whereabouts, with a larger $250,000 payout promised if he accurately located her remains, according to USA Today.

“Are you ready to be really specific about where Natalee is,” Kelly asks. “I can’t believe I’m doing it, but I’m ready,” van der Sloot answers. On camera, he later points to a house and claims her body is in its foundation.

That lead was false. Law enforcement later found there was no construction at the house in 2005, and van der Sloot told FBI agents in an email that he had lied about the location, USA Today reported, citing an FBI affidavit. Holloway’s remains have never been found.

A timeline of the Natalee Holloway case

• May 2005: Holloway, an 18-year-old from the Birmingham, Alabama, area on a post-graduation trip, was last seen leaving an Oranjestad nightclub with van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. She missed her May 30 flight home.
• 2005 and 2007: Van der Sloot was arrested in Aruba but never formally charged in her disappearance, NL Times reported.
• 2010: He took money from the Holloway family for the false lead. That same year, on the fifth anniversary of Holloway’s disappearance, he killed Stephany Flores in Lima, Peru, and was later sentenced to 28 years.
• 2010: An Alabama grand jury indicted him on wire fraud and extortion charges.
• June 2023: He was temporarily transferred to the U.S. to face those charges.
• October 2023: He pleaded guilty to extortion and wire fraud and confessed to killing Holloway. He received 20 years, running at the same time as his Peru sentence.

How van der Sloot says Holloway died

As part of his plea deal, van der Sloot described killing Holloway on the beach with a cinder block after she rejected his sexual advances, then pushing her body into the sea, according to a transcript cited by USA Today. He was not convicted of her murder in the U.S.

Where is Joran van der Sloot now?

He remains in prison in Peru, serving his 28-year sentence at Challapalca prison, according to USA Today, which said he had requested a transfer over threats from other inmates; whether that was approved is unknown.

Could he face murder charges?

That question is now in the Netherlands. Beth Holloway filed a murder complaint there with Dutch attorneys Royce de Vries and Annemiek van Spanje. In April 2026, Aruba’s prosecution service handed the case file to Dutch prosecutors in Amsterdam so they could evaluate it, NL Times reported.

Aruban prosecutors had concluded there was not enough evidence to charge van der Sloot with murder, and a manslaughter case is barred there by the statute of limitations, according to NL Times. In the Netherlands, the outlet reported, that offense has not expired.

“I’ve been working busy behind the scenes, got the murder complaint,” Beth Holloway told Netflix’s Tudum. “And now we’re working on, hopefully, murder charges.” Dutch prosecutors have not announced any charging decision.

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