Natalee Holloway's Mom Beth Recalls Chilling Moment She Came Face-to-Face With Daughter's Killer Joran van der Sloot in 2005: 'He Knows'

Natalee Holloway's mother recalled first coming face-to-face with her daughter's killer, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

Beth Holloway's 18-year-old daughter disappeared in May 2005 during a high school graduation trip to Aruba. For nearly two decades, no one knew for sure what happened to her. But in 2023, Joran van der Sloot confessed to murdering Natalee. At the time, he was already incarcerated for killing another young woman, Stephany Flores.

Beth first met van der Sloot in 2005. She traveled to Aruba hours after being informed her daughter was missing. When Mrs. Holloway arrived, a hotel manager told her his name and said Natalee had left with him the prior night.

Van der Sloot, then 17, was questioned by officers but said he hadn't heard of Natalee. He later changed his story, claiming he and his friend, Deepak Kalpoe, drove her to a lighthouse. But Sloot alleged he took her back to the hotel around 2:00 a.m.

Van Der Sloot and the Kalpie brothers were later arrested, but released weeks later.

The mother detailed her first exchange with van der Sloot in an interview, claiming that she saw him outside of a hotel and demanded he "give her back now.’’

"What do you want me to do?" the convicted killer allegedly coolly responded.

The 66-year-old described him as having "no sympathy, no empathy'' and as "just driven'' by physical needs.

"My initial interaction with Joran was another moment of, 'He knows. He knows what happened to her,'" the mother told NBC.

The mother, who grew frustrated with Aruban officers, launched her own investigation and she refused to give up on uncovering what happened to Natalee.

"The torturous part is the not knowing, and as shocking and as torturous as it is to hear this... I had to know, no matter how brutal it was. I needed to know what happened," Beth explained.

In 2010, van der Sloot contacted her lawyer, John Q. Kelly.

The suspect told Kelly if Beth gave him $250,000, he would tell law enforcement where Natalee's body was. Kelly agreed to meet van der Sloot and contacted the FBI to coordinate a sting operation.

"It was a win-win situation. He was either going to pay the money, and if the information turned out to be true, Beth would get closure, she’d bring Natalee home. Assuming it was false, it would be extortion and wire fraud once falsehoods are proven. Either way, he’d be boxed in," Kelly told the press at the time.

The attorney met the man in an Aruban hotel without the $25,000 he said he’d give him to start. Although van der Sloot was "very angry, very agitated, very upset," he consented to meeting Kelly again after being sent $100.

During the second meeting, Joran drove the lawyer to a house he claimed Natalee was buried behind.

A week later, he emailed Kelly and said he lied.

"He indicated it was all a hoax, which is sort of his M.O. with everybody – get the money, then say it’s a hoax and avoid criminal prosecution," the attorney detailed.

It wasn't until 2023 that van der Sloot told the truth as part of a plea deal, finally providing Beth closure.

"The weight of the world has been lifted off me," the mother shared. "I spent 18 years in the dark."

The speech pathologist said "hope," "faith," and the "love for my daughter" are what motivated her to keep searching for decades.