Joran van der Sloot, the longtime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway on Aruba, was arrested today in Chile on murder charges. Also, in a separate criminal complaint filed today the U.S. Attorney in Birmingham, Alabama accuses Van der Sloot of extortion and wire fraud.
Van der Sloot, a Dutch national, is accused of killing 21-year old Stephany Flores in a hotel on Sunday in Lima, Peru. This was five years to the day after Holloway disappeared. He fled Peru and was arrested today in Chile.
Hours later, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama held a press conference discussing a separate criminal complaint against him. Allegedly, he asked for $250,000 in exchange for the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway. An advance amount of $15,000 had been wired from Alabama to the Netherlands on May 10, 2010.
In February 2008, an undercover video made by reporter Dutch reported Peter R. de Vries was aired on Dutch television purporting to show Van der Sloot smoking marijuana and admitting to being present during Natalee's death. He said he believed she was dead and asked a friend to dump her body in the sea.