By: History.com Editors

2012

Joran van der Sloot pleads guilty to Peru murder

History.com Editors

Published: January 27, 2012

Last Updated: January 24, 2025

On January 11, 2012, Joran van der Sloot, a longtime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of American teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba, pleads guilty to the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, in Lima, Peru. Flores was killed on May 30, 2010, exactly five years to the day after Holloway went missing while on a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island. Her disappearance generated widespread media coverage in the United States.

In May 2010, Van der Sloot, who was born in the Netherlands in 1987 and raised in Dutch-speaking Aruba, was in the Peruvian capital for a poker tournament. He met Flores, a college student and daughter of a prominent Peruvian businessman, at a Lima casino. The two were seen entering Van der Sloot’s room at Hotel TAC around 5 a.m. on May 30. Approximately four hours later, surveillance video captured Van der Sloot leaving the room alone and carrying his bags. After Flores’ family reported her missing, she was found dead in the hotel room on June 2, beaten and with a broken neck. Her money and credit cards were missing.

After Peruvian officials reviewed the hotel surveillance video, Van der Sloot emerged as the prime suspect in the murder investigation. Police believed he had fled in Flores’ car and later abandoned it in another part of Lima, before traveling south to Chile. On June 3, Van der Sloot was arrested in Chile, and deported to Peru soon afterward. On June 7, the Dutchman admitted to Peruvian authorities he had killed Flores during an argument after she used his computer without permission. (Authorities suggested she might have discovered he was linked to the Holloway case.) Van der Sloot stated he beat and strangled Flores, then suffocated her with his shirt. The Dutchman later retracted this confession, saying he was frightened and confused when he made it.

On January 11, 2012, Van der Sloot, who had been behind bars in Peru since his June 2010 arrest, pleaded guilty in a Lima courtroom to Flores’ murder. He also confessed to robbing her. His lawyer contended the Dutchman killed Flores due to “extreme psychological trauma” after being accused in Holloway’s disappearance. On January 13, two days after his guilty plea, a three-judge panel sentenced Van der Sloot to 28 years in prison and ordered him to pay $75,000 in reparation to Flores’ family.

On the day Van der Sloot was arrested in South America, U.S. authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with a plot to extort $250,000 from Holloway’s family in exchange for revealing the location of her remains. In October 2023, while on trial for that extortion, Van der Sloot finally confessed to Holloway's murder as part of a plea deal.

Holloway, an 18-year-old from Mountain Brook, Alabama, had been last seen leaving an Aruban bar and restaurant with Van der Sloot and two of his friends in the early hours of May 30, 2005. Despite an extensive search, her body was never found, and in 2012, a judge signed an order declaring her officially dead. Van der Sloot was arrested twice in Aruba in conjunction with her disappearance but never charged. His 2023 confession came after Aruba's 12-year statute of limitations had run out on the case, so it's unclear if he will ever be tried for Holloway's murder.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on January 11th

1775

Jewish patriot joins Provincial Congress of South Carolina

Francis Salvador, the first Jewish person to hold an elected office in the Americas, takes his seat on the South Carolina Provincial Congress on January 11, 1775. He later became the first recorded Jewish soldier killed in the American War for Independence.

1863

Battle of Arkansas Post

On January 11, 1863, Union General John McClernand and Admiral David Porter capture Arkansas Post, a Confederate stronghold on the Arkansas River. The victory secured central Arkansas for the Union and lifted Northern morale just three weeks after the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

1879

Anglo-Zulu War begins

After the Zulu kingdom ignores the British ultimatum to fully demilitarize within 30 days, British troops invade Zululand in three columns from the southern African republic of Natal, under the leadership of Lord Chelmsford. Thus begins the Anglo-Zulu War.

1908

Theodore Roosevelt makes Grand Canyon a national monument

On January 11, 1908, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declares the massive Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona a national monument.

Colorful sunset overlooking the Colorado River deep in the Grand Canyon

1922

First human receives insulin injection to treat diabetes

On January 11, 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson becomes the first person to receive an injection of the hormone insulin for Type-1 diabetes—a disease that for millennia had been considered a death sentence for anyone who developed it. The breakthrough would be one of the most consequential in medical history, saving millions of lives.

1927

Charlie Chaplin’s assets frozen in contentious divorce suit

On January 11, 1927, Charlie Chaplin’s $16 million estate is frozen by court receivers after his second wife, Lita Grey Chaplin, sues for divorce. The bitter and prolonged divorce ended a three-year marriage with a $825,000 settlement ($625,000 for her and $200,000 in trust for their two children), a record amount at the time.

1935

Amelia Earhart flies from Hawaii to California

In the first flight of its kind, American aviatrix Amelia Earhart departs Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii, on a solo flight to North America. Hawaiian commercial interests offered a $10,000 award to whoever accomplished the flight first. The next day, after traveling 2,400 miles in 18 hours, she safely landed at Oakland Airport in Oakland, California.

1943

FDR becomes first president to travel by airplane on U.S. official business

On January 11, 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first president to travel on official business by airplane. Crossing the Atlantic by air, Roosevelt flew in a Boeing 314 Flying Boat dubbed the Dixie Clipper to a World War II strategy meeting with Winston Churchill at Casablanca in North Africa. With German U-boats taking a heavy toll on American marine traffic in the Atlantic, Roosevelt’s advisors reluctantly agreed to send him via airplane. Roosevelt, at a frail 60 years old, gamely made the arduous 17,000-mile round trip.

1959

A serial killer abducts young family from their car

On January 11, 1959, the Jackson family—Carroll, 29, his wife Mildred, 27, and their two young daughters—are driving along a dirt road in Virginia, returning home from a family visit, when they are forced to stop and are abducted at gunpoint. A few days later, their car is found empty on the side of the road, with keys in the ignition, Mildred's purse on the seat and dolls scattered about. The family's disappearance triggers a massive search-and-rescue operation and remains a terrifying local mystery for two months.

1964

U.S. Surgeon General announces definitive link between smoking and cancer

On January 11, 1964, United States Surgeon General Luther Terry releases a groundbreaking government report announcing a definitive link between smoking and cancer.

1971

“Silicon Valley” first appears in print

On January 11, 1971, “Silicon Valley” appears for the first time in print in the Electronic News, a popular weekly trade magazine_._ The article, the first of a three-part series, was written by veteran electronics columnist Don Hoefler and chronicles the rise of the semiconductor industry in Northern California’s Santa Clara Valley. Its headline: “Silicon Valley U.S.A.”

1973

American League adopts designated hitter rule

On January 11, 1973, the owners of America’s 24 major league baseball teams vote to allow teams in the American League to use a “designated pinch-hitter” who could bat for the pitcher while still allowing the pitcher to stay in the game.

1978

“Song of Solomon” wins National Book Critics Circle Award

On January 11, 1978, Toni Morrison wins the National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon. The award brought the writer national attention for the first time, although she had already published two moderately successful books, The Bluest Eye (1969) and Sula (1973). Morrison went on to win the Pulitzer in 1988 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.

1989

President Reagan gives his farewell address

After eight years as president of the United States, Ronald Reagan gives his farewell address to the American people. In his speech, President Reagan spoke with particular enthusiasm about the foreign policy achievements of his administration.

2010

Miep Gies, who hid Anne Frank, dies at 100

On January 11, 2010, Miep Gies, the last survivor of a small group of people who helped hide a Jewish girl, Anne Frank, and her family from the Nazis during World War II, dies at age 100 in the Netherlands. After the Franks were discovered in 1944 and sent to concentration camps, Gies rescued the notebooks that Anne Frank left behind describing her two years in hiding. These writings were later published as “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl,” which became one of the most widely read accounts of the Holocaust.

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Citation Information

Article title
Joran van der Sloot pleads guilty to Peru murder
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
March 23, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
January 24, 2025
Original Published Date
January 27, 2012

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