NEWSNatalee Holloway’s Killer Joran van der Sloot Attempts Suicide in Peruvian Prison, Says He Doesn’t 'Want to Live Anymore'
Natalee Holloway’s killer, Joran van der Sloot, reportedly attempted suicide in a Peruvian prison.
Dec. 17 2025, Published 7:38 a.m. ET
Joran van der Sloot has reportedly tried to take his own life nearly 20 years after Natalee Holloway’s disappearance shocked the world.
Officials at Peru’s Challapalca maximum-security prison confirmed that on Friday, December 12, van der Sloot was discovered with part of a blanket tied around his neck. Authorities said he was close to death when guards intervened.
After the incident, prison officials placed van der Sloot in a recorded interview, where he spoke about his time inside what he described as “the toughest prison in the world.” He was transferred to the Peruvian facility in October 2023.
During the interview, van der Sloot claimed his mental state had deteriorated to the point where he “didn’t want to live anymore.”
Joran van der Sloot attempted suicide in prison.
“Every day I see that the situation is getting worse for us inmates,” he said. “You can't be with your family, you can't touch them or hug them.”
Despite his remarks, the convicted killer appeared detached, smiling at moments throughout the interview.
As OK! previously reported, van der Sloot pleaded guilty in 2023 to federal extortion charges connected to Holloway’s disappearance and received a 20-year prison sentence.
Holloway vanished during a high school graduation trip to Aruba after she failed to catch her flight back to Alabama on May 30, 2005. The 18-year-old was last seen leaving a bar in the early morning hours with van der Sloot. Although her body was never recovered, she was legally declared dead in 2014.
Guards found the killer with a blanket tied around his neck.
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According to a partial transcript from a proffer meeting with prosecutors two years ago, van der Sloot admitted to killing Holloway on a beach. He allegedly struck her face with a cinderblock and later disposed of her body in the ocean.
van der Sloot claimed Holloway wanted to return to her hotel that night, but he arranged for them to be dropped off "a little bit further away from her hotel so we could walk back … and I might still get a chance to be with her," he said during the meeting.
As they walked alone along the beach, van der Sloot said he "laid her down" and began kissing her before she told him to stop.
He then claimed Holloway reacted by fighting back.
"But he said he kept pursuing her, and Holloway 'knees me in the crotch,'" van der Sloot stated, according to the transcript.
"When she knees me in the crotch, I get up on the beach and I kick her extremely hard in the face," he continued.
Joran van der Sloot later gave a recorded interview from jail.
He told prosecutors she was then "lying down unconscious, possibly even dead."
van der Sloot said he later found a cinderblock on the beach and "smashed" her head with it.
He added that he walked into the ocean up to his knees and pushed Holloway’s body into the water.
Joran van der Sloot previously confessed to killing Natalee Holloway.
At the time of his confession, van der Sloot was already serving a 28-year sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of college student Stephany Flores.
During the 2023 court hearing, Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, delivered a powerful statement to Joran.
“Joran, for 18 years you denied killing my daughter," she said, adding that "you have finally admitted that you, in fact, have murdered her."
"You are a killer. I want you to remember that every time that jail door slams," Beth continued. "Even if you have finally confessed ... you can't be tried here for her murder. But I do employ the court to give you the maximum sentence possible.”
