page_title: Joran van der Sloot
section_title: 2008 Dutch television sting operations
hierarchical_section_title: Joran van der Sloot / Natalee Holloway disappearance / 2008 Dutch television sting operations
caption_attribution_description: Peter R. de Vries
context_page_description: Joran Andreas Petrus van der Sloot is a Dutch convicted murderer who killed Stephany Flores Ramírez in Lima, Peru in 2010. He is also the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2005.
  After Flores' murder on 30 May 2010—five years to the day after Holloway's disappearance—Van der Sloot fled to Chile, where he was arrested and extradited back to Peru for questioning regarding the murder. On 7 June 2010, he confessed to bludgeoning Flores. He later tried to formally retract his confession, claiming that he had been intimidated by the Peruvian police and framed by the FBI. A Peruvian judge ruled on 25 June 2010 that the confession was valid, and on 13 January 2012, Van der Sloot was sentenced to 28 years' imprisonment for Flores' murder.
  While living in Aruba five years earlier, Van der Sloot had been the prime suspect in the disappearance of eighteen-year-old American woman Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba on 30 May 2005. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in the U.S. for wire fraud and extortion related to Holloway's whereabouts. Holloway's disappearance remains unsolved.
context_section_description: On 11 January 2008, after being challenged on the Dutch late-night talk show Pauw & Witteman by crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, Van der Sloot threw a glass of red wine into De Vries' face. On 3 February, an undercover video made by De Vries aired on Dutch television, purporting to show Van der Sloot smoking marijuana and admitting to being present during Holloway's death. The show was watched by 7 million viewers in the Netherlands and was the most popular non-sports program in Dutch television history.
  Patrick van der Eem, working undercover for De Vries, had befriended Van der Sloot, who was unaware that he was being taped when he said that Holloway had suffered some kind of seizure while having sex on the beach. After failing to revive her, Van der Sloot said that he summoned a friend named Daury. The two men neither phoned for medical help nor checked Natalee to determine if she might still be alive. Then, according to Van der Sloot, Daury volunteered to load her on a boat, and he dumped Natalee's body into the sea. The prosecutor in Aruba determined the video was admissible, but the evidence was deemed "insufficient" to warrant Van der Sloot's, or anyone's, arrest. Although the taped confession appeared damning, Van der Sloot argued that he was lying to impress Van der Eem, who he believed was a drug dealer.
  On 22 September 2008, in New York City, De Vries accepted an International Emmy Award in Current Affairs for his coverage while accompanied by Beth Holloway. Under pressure of the attention from the program, Van der Sloot voluntarily checked into a psychiatric clinic before departing for Thailand. He moved to Muang Ake, a suburb of Bangkok, to study business at Rangsit University, but dropped out and bought Sawadee Cup, a restaurant next to the campus that served sandwiches and pizza.
  In November 2008, De Vries aired undercover footage of Van der Sloot making preparations for the apparent sex trafficking of Thai women in Bangkok. De Vries claimed that Van der Sloot was making $13,000 for every woman sold into prostitution in the Netherlands. Van der Sloot used the alias "Murphy Jenkins" to avoid Thai authorities. Peruvian Minister of Justice Aurelio Pastor said that Thailand was pursuing criminal charges against Van der Sloot. According to The National Enquirer, he is being investigated for his involvement in the disappearance of young women he may have recruited for a Thai sex slave gang while posing as a production consultant for a modeling agency that would send them to Europe.
  Van der Sloot was portrayed by actor Jacques Strydom in the Lifetime television film Natalee Holloway (2009), which was based on the bestselling book Loving Natalee: A Mother's Testament of Hope and Faith (2007) by Beth Holloway. The movie brought in the highest television ratings in Lifetime's 11-year history at the time. Van der Sloot himself watched the film one evening in 2010, according to his friend John Ludwick, and said that some parts were true while others were not. The film was followed by a sequel, Justice for Natalee Holloway (2011), in which Van der Sloot was played by actor Stephen Amell.
  In August 2009, Van der Sloot was spotted in Macau at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour. He won over US$12,000 that year in an online poker tournament. He described himself on his YouTube page as "a professional poker player" and cited Barry Greenstein's poker strategy guide, Ace on the River, as his favorite book. In early 2010, Van der Sloot sold his restaurant business and returned to Aruba after the death of his father Paulus.
caption: Dutch journalist Peter R. de Vries has pursued Van der Sloot in undercover reports
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