Although Joran van der Sloot admitted that he killed Natalee Holloway, he has never served prison time for her death.
Now, Dani, the director of Netflix’s Taken: Natalee Holloway, is discussing whether van der Sloot could still face murder charges in Aruba.
“I think that hope is alive for so many people,” Dani exclusively told Oxygen. “The more justice that can be heaped on the pile of all the consequences he’s faced, I think the better.”
More than 20 years have passed since Natalee disappeared during her high school graduation trip to Aruba, yet the case remains unresolved.
“I think what we’ve learned in the story is you can never say never,” Dani added. “There’s always a chance.”
Even though van der Sloot has not been charged in Aruba, Dani said his 2023 confession offered a degree of closure to Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway, as well as to people across the island.
Dani became interested in exploring the case—and Beth’s determined campaign for answers—after following the story in the tabloids as a teenager.
“I think we all knew, you know, Joran van der Sloot had done this,” she said. “We knew his name. We knew Natalee’s name. But there’s so much under the surface that I think the public just does not know about what happened here.”
Will Joran van der Sloot Ever Be Charged with Murdering Natalee Holloway in Aruba?
Whether van der Sloot could still be prosecuted in Aruba is a complicated legal question.
One reason is that he did not confess to Natalee’s killing until he was already serving a 28-year sentence in Peru for the murder of Stephany Flores Ramirez.
Aruba also has a 12-year statute of limitations for murder, a deadline that expired almost a decade ago.
Still, in 2023, the Aruba Public Prosecutor’s Office said it had not completely ruled out a future prosecution.
A spokesperson told People that, despite the statute of limitations, the possibility of charges “cannot be answered with a simple yes or no.”
The spokesperson added, “The Police Force, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Aruba and other investigative entities will follow up on any serious leads that could solve the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.”
Authorities also sought records from the U.S. Department of Justice connected to its investigation of van der Sloot.
Oxygen contacted prosecutors in Aruba, who said Dutch authorities were now handling the case.
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Prosecutors in Amsterdam announced in February that they had agreed to review the matter after Aruba officials determined there was, for now, “insufficient evidence” to pursue murder or manslaughter charges.
Because van der Sloot is Dutch, officials said he could potentially be prosecuted in the Netherlands.
In an update to Oxygen, Evert Boerstra, a press officer for the Public Prosecution Office Amsterdam, said the case file was “currently being reviewed,” but offered no further details.
At least one former Aruba official believes the investigation should be revisited on the island.
“I hope Aruba decides to reopen the case,” former Deputy of Police Gerold Dompig said in the Netflix three-part docuseries. “I would feel like a heavy load would get off my back. I walk with this load for 20 years.”
Why Wasn’t Joran van der Sloot Arrested in Natalee Holloway’s Disappearance?
Dompig took charge of the investigation in May 2005, after Natalee disappeared during her high school trip to Aruba.
Van der Sloot, the last person known to have seen Natalee alive, was considered a suspect from the beginning. However, investigators never found her body or physical evidence that conclusively connected him to the crime.
Joran van der Sloot Eventually Confessed to Killing Natalee Holloway
Van der Sloot confessed to killing the 18-year-old in 2023, after he was extradited to the United States to face extortion and wire fraud charges.
The charges involved a 2010 scheme in which van der Sloot contacted Beth’s attorney and offered information about her daughter’s remains for $250,000, according to court records obtained by Oxygen. After receiving $25,000 upfront, he gave the attorney false information.
He agreed to plead guilty to extortion and reveal what happened to Natalee in exchange for a 20-year prison sentence to be served alongside the sentence he was already serving in Peru.
Van der Sloot said he took Natalee to the beach on the night she vanished. After the two began kissing, he attempted to take things further, but Natalee resisted and kneed him in the groin.
In a recorded confession featured in the docuseries, he told authorities that he stood up and kicked her “extremely hard in the face.” He then said he picked up a nearby cement cinderblock, struck her in the head and disposed of her body in the ocean.
Despite his confession, Natalee’s remains have never been recovered.
“I think unless there’s some like real forward movement or forward momentum,” Dani said of the possibility that Aruba could pursue the case, “it’s sort of hard to predict what…would lead to that being reopened.”
Even without a conviction, Dani said she wanted the documentary to present Natalee’s story decades later in a way that was “more thought-provoking, three-dimensional.”
“I hope that people watch this and actually get to know her and know that she was so much more than the face on the tabloid,” she continued. “She was so much more than the face on the news. She did nothing wrong that night….By the grace of her mother, we know what happened all these years later.”