Van der Sloot indicted in Alabama for trying to extort $250,000 from Holloway’s mother

Van der Sloot indicted in Alabama for extortion

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Dutchman Joran van der Sloot has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Alabama on charges he tried to extort $250,000 from the mother of a teenager who disappeared during a trip to Aruba.

U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance said van der Sloot was indicted Wednesday in Birmingham on charges of wire fraud and extortion for soliciting money from Beth Holloway in exchange for information on where her daughter, Natalee Holloway, was buried.

Van der Sloot has been a suspect since Natalee Holloway, 18 at the time, disappeared while on a graduation trip to Aruba in 2005.

Van der Sloot is in prison in Peru, charged with murder in the May 30 death of a 21-year-old Lima student he met while playing poker in a casino.