Natalee Holloway case: Prime suspect Joran van der Sloot claimed he and his father rented boat and 'took care of things' two days after teen vanished
Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion advised.
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA: Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the case of Natalee Holloway's disappearance, reportedly told a friend that he and his father rented a boat and 'took care of things' two days after the teen vanished.
Suburban Birmingham resident Natalee was only 18 years old when she mysteriously disappeared in May 2005 during a high school graduation trip to Aruba.
The Alabama high school senior’s remains have never been found, but a judge declared her legally deceased in 2012.
After an initial investigation, it was revealed that Natalee was last seen with Joran, who was extradited to the US in June from Peru.
While he is not charged with murder, he remains the prime suspect in the case. As of now, he faces one count of extortion and another of wire fraud after allegedly offering to reveal Natalee's location in return for $250,000 from her family.
What did Joran van der Sloot tell his family about Natalee Holloway’s disappearance?
Federal prosecutors recently recovered an email that Joran van der Sloot sent to someone named David G from his Yahoo! email address in 2010, in which he described his actions in the days after Natalee Holloway went missing.
"My dad got a boat two days later," wrote the prime suspect, adding, "We went for a ride and took care of things. That's all I'm going to say," according to The Messenger.
Prosecutors also discovered that Joran sent an email to David G through the same account he used to contact Natalee's family.
Police in Aruba have spoken to numerous boat operators on the island in a bid to uncover more information about the teenager's disappearance.
"It's always seemed most likely that she was taken out on a boat," an investigator told The Messenger.
They added, "But the key is figuring out who would have taken him out there to do it. He and his father didn't have a boat of their own."
Why did Joran van der Sloot contact Natalee Holloway’s family?
Federal prosecutors previously revealed that Joran van der Sloot allegedly got in touch with Natalee Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway, via her attorney in March 2010 and offered to divulge the location of the teen's body in exchange for $250,000 with $25,000 paid up advance.
During a recorded sting operation, Beth and her lawyer visited him at a hotel in Aruba, handed him $10,000 in cash, and sent him $15,000 to his bank account.
Joran allegedly changed his story about the night he was with Natalee. According to the prosecution, he claimed to have picked her up, but when she insisted on being let down, he flung her to the ground where she hit her head on a rock and died immediately.
He then allegedly took Natalee to a residence where his father, Paulus van der Sloot, buried her in the building's foundation.
However, he gave a different account during a hidden camera interview with Dutch journalists in 2008. At that time, he claimed that the teenager had a seizure and died as they had sex on the beach.
Joran said a friend named Daury helped him load her onto a boat before he subsequently dumped her body into the sea. But he later claimed to have lied to the journalists.