Natalee Holloway’s Killer Found Hanging in ‘The Toughest Prison in the World’

It happened in the cold, thin air of the Andes — the man who murdered Natalee Holloway was found dangling by a blanket in one of the world’s most feared prisons.

Officials at Peru’s Challapalca prison confirmed that Joran van der Sloot, 38, tried to end his life early Friday morning, December 12, inside his cell at the remote facility. Guards discovered him with a torn piece of fabric tied around his neck as breakfast was being served. Sources say he was “minutes from death” before guards intervened.

A spokesperson for Peru’s Ministry of Justice said van der Sloot survived the attempt but remains under close medical supervision. “He is stable for now,” the spokesperson told La República. “But his mental state is fragile.”

In a chilling recorded interview conducted after the attempt, van der Sloot wept and described life inside Challapalca — a prison perched nearly 15,000 feet above sea level and known for its brutal conditions, freezing temperatures, and isolation.

“This is the toughest prison in the world,” he said, calling it “hell on Earth.”
“You can’t be with your family. You can’t touch them or hug them. Every day it gets worse for us inmates.”

Despite the tears, witnesses told Peruvian media the Dutch killer at times “smiled strangely” during the interview — an unnerving reminder of his infamy.

Van der Sloot is serving 28 years for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, who he beat and strangled in a Lima hotel room after she discovered information about Natalee Holloway on his laptop.

He was later sentenced to 20 more years in 2023 for extorting Holloway’s mother, Beth, after promising to reveal the location of her daughter’s body in exchange for money.

“He’s pure evil,” Beth Holloway told reporters at the time. “He destroyed our family, and he has never shown real remorse.”

Van der Sloot was also slapped with an 18-year sentence for drug trafficking later that same year, making him one of Peru’s most reviled prisoners.

Challapalca prison, often referred to as El Penal del Fin del Mundo — “The Prison at the End of the World” — sits between icy peaks on the border of Bolivia. Inmates sleep on concrete, with no heating, and temperatures often fall below freezing.

Former guards have described it as “a place built to break men.” Human rights groups have condemned the facility for what they call “inhumane living conditions.”

Earlier this year, van der Sloot was reportedly on a list of “problem inmates” authorities considered transferring to El Salvador’s mega-prison CECOT, infamous for cramming 80 prisoners into a single cell.

It’s been 20 years since Natalee Holloway, an Alabama high school senior, vanished while on a graduation trip to Aruba. She was last seen leaving a nightclub with van der Sloot in May 2005.

In 2023, van der Sloot finally confessed to killing her — telling investigators he struck her in the head with a cinder block after she rejected his advances, then dumped her body into the ocean.

Natalee’s body was never found. She was declared legally dead in 2014.

“Justice has taken decades,” Beth Holloway said in October. “But God sees all. And that will have to be enough.”

Now, from behind the walls of Peru’s highest prison, the man who once boasted of his crimes says he’s come undone.

“I didn’t want to live anymore,” van der Sloot told guards.

For Beth Holloway and millions who followed the case, the words may feel like too little, too late.

Sources: RadarOnline, La República, Peru Ministry of Justice, Associated Press.