Chief Suspect in Natalee Holloway Disappearance Pleads Not Guilty to Extortion Charges
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Joran van der Sloot, the chief suspect in Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance on the island of Aruba, walked shackled into an Alabama courtroom on Friday as her parents looked on.
He pleaded not guilty to charges that he tried to extort money from the missing teen’s mother in exchange for revealing where to find her daughter’s remains.
Although he’s not on trial for harming Holloway, the extortion and wire fraud charges are the only alleged crimes that link the Dutch citizen to her disappearance on the final night of high school graduation trip with classmates. The 18-year-old was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, who was a student at an international school on the island where he grew up….