Who is Jessica Caiola? Natalee Holloway's friend recounts her final moments before murder
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA: Jessica Caiola, a friend and classmate of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway who disappeared in 2005 previously recalled her final moments before she was reported missing.
In a dramatic turn of events, on Wednesday, October 18, Joran van der Sloot, the suspect in Holloway's disappearance admitted to killing Holloway.
He also pleaded guilty to extortion and wire fraud charges for extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from Holloway's family promising to give them details of Holloways remains, reports People.
Jessica Caiola said she last saw Natalee Holloway alive at a local bar
Speaking to Oxygen for the series 'The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway' in 2017, Caiola said she last saw Halloway alive during their high school graduation trip in Aruba in 2005.
She saw her Holloway being driven away in a white car after she saw her leaving a local bar named Carlos ‘n Charlie’s, she told Oxygen.
At the time, Caiola assumed she was on her way back to the hotel where students from Mountain Brook High School in Birmingham, Alabama, were staying.
"The window was down so we could see it was her in the back of the car. My impression was ‘Oh, great, she found a ride back to the hotel,'" Caiola told Oxygen.
Jessica Caiola revealed suspect was at the local bar where Natalee Holloway was last spotted
Holloway left the local bar at around 1.30 am with Sloot and two other young men, Satish Kalpoe and Deepak Kalpoe, according to the FBI.
Speaking to Oxygen, Caiola recalled seeing Sloot at the local bar where she last saw Holloway alive.
"He was absolutely at Carlos ’n Charlie’s, 1,000 percent," said Caiola and added, "I remember seeing Joran van der Sloot at the casino at our hotel."
"That was the first time I saw him, and I remember chatter of him, like, ‘He’s so cute. Who’s going to hook up with him?’ Those sort of things were floating around. That was probably the extent to which I got close to him," she continued.
Joran Van Der Sloot admitted to killing Natalee Holloway 18 years after her disappearance
In an Alabama courtroom on Wednesday, October 18, Sloot who has been a prime suspect in Holloway's missing finally admitted to murdering her.
The deceased teenager's parents were also present at the court. "You changed the course of our lives and you turned them upside down," the victim's mother Beth Holloway told the suspect who was a few feet from her in court.
"You are a killer and I want you to remember that every time that jail cell door slams," said the grieving mother.
