Joran Van der Sloot awaits sentencing, Natalee Holloway might be declared dead
Beth Holloway participates in the launch of the Natalee Holloway Resource Center on June 8, 2010 in Washington, DC. Beth Holloway’s daughter Natalee is the Alabama teen who disappeared five years ago in Aruba. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
A day after Joran van der Sloot admitted to killing Peruvian Stephany Flores, Natalee Holloway, the woman whose disappearance he is linked with, will be declared dead by a judge, said ABC news.
Holloway disappeared in 2005, and 24-year-old Dutch national van der Sloot remains the prime suspect in the case. He was arrested in connection with her disappearance twice, but charges were never filed. His lawyer now claims that the post-traumatic stress from the Holloway case played a role in his murder of Flores, five years to the day on which Holloway went missing.
More on GlobalPost: Joran van der Sloot pleads guilty to murder of Peruvian Stephany Flores (VIDEO)
According to CNN, a court hearing in Birmingham, Alabama will determine Holloway’s case:
A notice of presumption of death must be published in a local newspaper for two successive weeks, Judge Alan King ruled, followed by a 12-week time frame to submit any evidence the teen is still alive… Barring any such evidence, the judge will be able to declare her dead.
Holloway’s father, Dave Holloway, was the one who filed the petition to declare her dead. However, her mother, Beth Holloway, is opposed to the proceedings, said ABC. Beth Holloway’s attorney said, “No mother likes to, without evidence, have her daughter declared dead. She wants to carry around her around in her heart.”
More on GlobalPost: Reports: Joran Van der Sloot confesses to 2010 Stephany Flores murder in Peru (VIDEO)
Van der Sloot now awaits sentencing in Peru, and could be facing up to 30 years in prison. He also faces possible extradition to the United States on fraud and extortion charges in connection with the Holloway case, according to CNN.