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Natalee Holloway’s mother Beth has laid bare the depth of her ‘extreme emotional loss and grief’ in a heart wrenching victim impact statement. Beth delivered her statement, obtained in full by DailyMail.com, as Joran Van der Sloot finally confessed to killing Natalee in 2005 in court on Wednesday. And in an extraordinary show of compassion the mother of the murdered high school senior revealed that, for years, she has wondered about the ‘grief’ the killer’s own mother has experienced. ‘I have wondered over the years about the grief YOUR mother has experienced. I’ve thought about how you’ve destroyed her life, your brothers’, your grandmothers’ and everyone around you,’ she said.
Beth went on to ask Van der Sloot, who has a nine-year-old girl fathered while he was in prison in Peru: ‘And what about your daughter? ‘Imagine one day you get a call that your daughter has vanished, then you find out years later that a big bully who forced himself on her didn’t get what he wanted, so he violently murdered her. Imagine that.’ She speculated: ‘I’ve wondered if the stress you caused your father Paulus contributed to his heart attack and sudden death. You are to blame for all their suffering.’ Paulus van der Sloot died of a heart attack at the age of 57 while playing tennis in February 2010. His wife, Anita, subsequently revealed that Joran blamed himself for his father’s unexpected demise.
The lawyer had repeatedly tried to shield his son in the face of intense suspicion and relentless scrutiny following Natalee’s death. In the written statement that Beth read aloud in court, she said: ‘Extreme emotional loss and pain really can’t be comprehended by those who haven’t lived a devastating tragedy like ours, and I have also suffered great professional and financial loss.’ The bereaved mother moved to Aruba after her daughter’s death in a desperate bid to uncover what had become of her. Today she revealed she had lost her teaching license and tenure as a result and had to go back to school to have her license reinstated.
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She added: ‘Since 2010 when you extorted me and tried to sell me her bodily remains, I incurred attorney and investigative expenses that totally about $215,000.’ Natalee, who was killed days after graduating high school, would be celebrating her 37th birthday on Saturday had she lived. She had aspirations to go to medical school and her mother revealed she thinks about what kind of doctor she might have become. She would, her mother imagined, have been married and had children – her grandchildren. ‘But you have destroyed all this,’ Beth told Van der Sloot, ‘You terminated her potential, her dreams and her possibilities when you bludgeoned her to death in 2005.’
Beth’s sentiments were echoed in a letter submitted to Judge Anna M. Manasco by Natalee’s father, David Holloway. In the letter, also obtained by DailyMail.com, Holloway stated: ‘We were robbed of a promising future together with our beautiful, talented Natalee. And now we know who took that future from us.’ Asking the judge to sentence Van der Sloot ‘to the fullest extent of the law’ Holloway said: ‘Despite everything he has done to us, he is not sorry for what he did. He expresses no remorse, regret or even compassion for committing the horrific crime that violently ended Natalee’s life and irreparably changed the trajectory of all of ours.’ He branded her daughter’s killer, ‘evil personified.’
He said of his daughter: ‘We never saw her pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. We never saw her dance again. We never saw Natalee celebrate another birthday or Christmas, walk down the aisle as a bride or rock her newborn.’ For his part, Holloway said he takes some solace in his belief in a ‘higher power’ that will pronounce the ultimate judgment on Van der Sloot.
For Beth what cold comfort there is comes in knowing Van der Sloot will be in prison until he’s and old man while she will always live with ‘wonderful memories of a beautiful young lady who had her whole life in front of her.’ She said: ‘Natalie will be 18 forever in my heart. She was smart and so accomplished, and I have no doubt she would have made all her dreams come true. She had real hope. The hope that filled her heart fills mine, and I will wake up every day remembering who she was.’
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