Suspect in Natalee Holloway disappearance to enter plea in extortion case

Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in Natalee Holloway’s disappearance in Aruba, is expected to plead guilty Wednesday in a federal extortion case stemming from the Alabama teenager’s 2005 vanishing that received international attention. Van der Sloot was charged in 2010 with trying to extort a quarter-million dollars from Holloway’s mother Beth Holloway in exchange for information about her missing daughter’s remains, but he wasn’t extradited to the U.S. until earlier this year.

Van der Sloot is scheduled to appear in the federal courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama, at 9:30 a.m. CDT. Beth Holloway’s attorney John Q. Kelly confirmed to CBS News that he’s expected to plead guilty.

Kelly told the New York Times the expected plea is part of a deal that includes van der Sloot providing authorities with information about Holloway’s death.

Were Natalee Holloway’s remains ever found?

Holloway was legally declared dead in 2012. Her remains haven’t been found. She was last seen with van der Sloot on the Caribbean island nation during a high school graduation trip in May 2005.

The extortion case dates back to 2010, when Holloway had been missing for nearly five years. According to a grand jury indictment, van der Sloot contacted Kelly, Beth Holloway’s attorney, and offered to give him details about how Natalee Holloway died and about the location of her remains in Aruba for an initial payment of $25,000.

In the next part of the scheme, when the remains were confirmed to be Holloway’s, her mother would then pay van der Sloot an additional $225,000, according to the indictment.

Van der Sloot took Kelly to a site in Aruba, but after securing the initial $25,000 payment, van der Sloot said in an email that the information he provided was “worthless,” according to the indictment.

Van der Sloot hasn’t been charged in Natalee Holloway’s disappearance.

In June, van der Sloot was extradited to the U.S. from Peru, where he has been serving a 28-year prison sentence since he pleaded guilty in 2012 to killing 21-year-old college student Stephany Flores.

Beth Holloway said she was “overcome with mixed emotions” by van der Sloot’s extradition.

“I am hopeful that some small semblance of justice may finally be realized, even though no act of justice will heal the pain we’ve endured,” she said in a statement.

Natalee Holloway’s father Dave Holloway called the extradition “an important step toward accountability and hopefully, justice.”

In Alabama, van der Sloot initially pleaded not guilty to charges of extortion and wire fraud. 

U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona said van der Sloot would be returned to Peru after the case concludes.