Chief Suspect in Natalee Holloway Disappearance Pleads Not Guilty to Extortion Charges

Chief Suspect in Natalee Holloway Disappearance Pleads Not Guilty to Extortion Charges
Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot is driven in a police vehicle from the Ancon I maximum-security prison, outskirts of Lima, Peru, on June 8, 2023. Martin Mejia/AP Photo
The Associated Press
Updated:
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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.