Paul van der Sloot died suddenly of a heart attack in February 2010 and let his son drift. According to John Kelly, the Holloway family attorney, a desperate Joran emailed him in March saying Kelly Dateline said, “I want to come clean. My father is dead now. I have nothing to hide. I want to help Natalee’s family, but for one price, you know, for a quarter of a million dollars … I’ll tell you what happened to Natalee, where she is now, so you can help Beth bring her home. ‘”
With Beth’s permission, John Kelly met with Joran in Aruba and promised to start with $ 25,000. The young man said he knew where the body was; John asked what would happen if they didn’t pay him. Joran allegedly replied, “Beth can wait another five years.” The family then reached out to the FBI, which helped develop a plan that would make Joran believe he was being paid to catch him committing wire fraud, at least something to hold onto.
John and Joran met again and this time John wired him a total of $ 25,000. In return, Joran took John to a house near the Aruba Racquet Club, where he claimed he kept Natalee’s remains in what was then a freshly poured foundation before the house was built. John said on Dateline that Joran claimed he had been to the beach with Natalee, he wanted to go, she resisted, and then he “got angry and actually threw her. He actually made the gesture in the car, on video, and showed me how he threw her into anger because she wouldn’t go at that point. And according to him, she hit the back of the head, lots of blood and she was dead. “
John said he was skeptical of Joran’s overall story, namely that he first hid Natalee’s body on the beach with the help of his father and then buried her the next day. But he still hoped they’d shaken something.
“When I got on the plane on May 11th [2010]I thought it was a deal, “said John.” And he would be arrested at some point. That someday he’d talk and someday we’d get a degree. “
But the house Joran pointed out wasn’t under construction in 2010, authorities said, who said they didn’t find its story credible enough to make an arrest. He wasn’t even arrested for wire fraud.
John said Joran stayed in touch with him until May 25, claiming he was vomiting. Instead, he flew to Peru.
