Nearly two decades after the 18-year-old disappeared during a high school graduation trip to Aruba, Joran admitted he killed the Alabama native after she rebuffed his sexual advances while the pair were on a beach. The Dutch national is opening up about the details behind her 2005 disappearance as part of a plea deal in his fraud case involving Natalee's mom Beth Holloway.
According to a transcript of his confession obtained by E! News Oct. 19, Joran told his lawyer that he and Natalee ended up walking along a beach after they left a bar the night she vanished, stating that brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe (who the FBI has previously said were also seen leaving with them), went home for the night.
"I lay her down—we lay down together—in the sand and, uh, we start kissing each other," Joran, 36, claimed, adding that when he attempted to take their encounter further, "she tells me ‘no.'"
"She tells me she doesn't want me to—to feel her up," he continued. "Uh, I insist. I keep feeling her up either way."
Joran then said that Natalee kneed him in the crotch in attempt to get him off of her, to which, he said he kicked her "extremely hard" in the face, knocking her unconscious. He recalled that she was "possibly even dead, but definitely unconscious."
Shortly thereafter, Joran said he noticed a "huge cinderblock" laying nearby.
"I take this and uh, yeah, I smash her head in with it completely," he continued. "Her face basically, you know, uh collapses in. Even though it's dark, I can see her face collapsed in."
Joran said he got "scared" and didn't "know what to do," but decided to walk into the water to dispose of her body.
"I half, uh, half pull and half walk with her into the ocean," he told his attorney, stating that he was in the water to about his knees, "and I push her off into the—into the sea."
Moments after, Joran said he stepped out of the ocean: "I walk home."
E! News has reached out to Joran's legal team and government attorneys for comment and has not heard back.
The harrowing details from his confession comes just hours after Joran apologized to Natalee's loved ones during his appearance in court for his fraud case, where he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. His sentence will run concurrently with the 28-year prison term he'll serve in Peru for the 2010 murder of college student Stephany Flores.
As for Natalee's mom, she responded to finally closing this chapter in the decades-long case that has plagued their family.
"You are a killer and I want you to remember that every time that jail cell door slams," Beth said in a victim impact statement on Oct. 18, per NBC News. "You look like hell, Joran. I don't see how you're going to make it."
(E! and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)
For a full timeline on Natalee's case, keep reading.
Comments