Netflix’s three-part documentary Taken: Natalee Holloway revisits the 2005 disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, who vanished during a trip to Aruba. The series follows her mother, Beth Holloway, as she discusses the case in greater detail than before, alongside people who spent years seeking answers.

Holloway traveled from Alabama to Aruba with classmates to celebrate their high school graduation and was due to return home on May 30, 2005. She was last seen leaving a bar in Oranjestad with Joran van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. All three were questioned and arrested during the investigation, but none was charged in connection with her disappearance at the time. Holloway’s body has never been found.

Van der Sloot admitted in 2023 that he killed Holloway. According to a transcript of his account, he said they were walking on a beach when she rejected his advances, after which he kicked and struck her with a cinder block before pushing her body into the sea.

The admission came during a U.S. case over his attempt to extort money from Beth Holloway by offering information about her daughter’s remains and disappearance. Van der Sloot pleaded guilty to extortion and wire fraud and received a 20-year sentence. He was not convicted of Holloway’s murder and has not been charged with her killing, so the confession is distinct from a murder conviction.

Van der Sloot is currently imprisoned in Peru, serving a 28-year sentence for the 2010 murder of Peruvian student Stephany Flores Ramírez. His U.S. sentence is running concurrently with his Peruvian sentence. As of August 2026, reports placed him at Challapalca prison in southern Peru. He had requested a transfer, alleging threats from other inmates, and a judge had yet to rule on the request.

Flores Ramírez, a 21-year-old business student, was found dead in a Lima hotel room after checking in with van der Sloot in May 2010. He was arrested in Chile and returned to Peru. He initially confessed to her murder, later tried to withdraw the confession, and a court ruled it could be used as evidence. In January 2012, he was sentenced to 28 years in prison and ordered to pay compensation to her family. In 2023, he also admitted to killing Flores Ramírez.

Sources: Cosmopolitan.