Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, once claimed he shoved the teenager so hard to the ground that she hit her head on a rock and died, according to court papers.
The Dutch national is set to be extradited to the US from Peru, where he is serving a decades-long prison sentence for the 2010 murder of another woman.
Prosecutors in the US claim that as part of the $250,000 extortion plot, Van Der Sloot told a lawyer for Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother, that the 18-year-old’s body was buried inside the foundation of a house in Aruba.
Natalee Holloway disappeared on the Caribbean island on 30 May 2005 during a trip to celebrate her high school graduation.
“Van der Sloot went on to admit that he had been with Natalee on the night of May 29/30, 2005, and that he had thrown her to the ground after she had attempted to stop him from leaving her,” states a federal affidavit, according to Fox News.
“Van der Sloot claimed that when she fell down, she hit her head on a rock and died as a result of the impact.”
Federal prosecutors say that Van der Sloot claimed his father had helped him hide the body but when he took the lawyer to the alleged location there was no sign of Natalee.
When the lawyer left the island, Van der Sloot allegedly told him he had lied about the location.
No one has ever been charged over the disappearance, although Van der Sloot, and his friends Satish and Deepak Kalpoe were arrested and then released due to lack of evidence.
Van der Sloot was indicted on extortion and wire fraud charges in federal court in Alabama in 2010 in connection with a scheme to get money from her family in return for the location of her body.
But the same year he was also convicted of murdering 21-year-old student Stephany Flores after meeting her at her father’s casino in Lima, Peru.
Van der Sloot will temporarily be sent to the US to go on trial for the extortion charges before being sent back to Peru.
If convicted in Alabama he would return to the US in 2038 to serve up to 40 additional years in a US prison.
A judge declared Natalee Holloway, who would be 36, legally dead in 2012.
