FBI Watched, Killer Walked — Then Another Died

Freshly released Justice Department records suggest federal agents watched Joran van der Sloot take cash in a sting, then let him walk away just weeks before he killed again.

Story Snapshot

Newly disclosed files show the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recorded and funded a 2010 extortion sting on Joran van der Sloot before the Peru murder.
Agents did not move to arrest him after he took $25,000 and gave false leads about Natalee Holloway’s remains, then he left Aruba for Peru, where he killed Stephany Flores.
The Obama-era Department of Justice (DOJ) later charged him with wire fraud and extortion, but only after Flores was dead.
President Trump’s DOJ has now released documents fueling bipartisan anger over whether federal investigators “missed” a chance to stop a known predator.

What the newly released documents show about the 2010 sting

Justice Department records obtained by journalist Greta Van Susteren through the Freedom of Information Act detail a 2010 FBI-led sting in Aruba targeting Joran van der Sloot’s attempt to extort Natalee Holloway’s mother, Beth. According to earlier FBI charging documents, van der Sloot agreed to reveal the location of Natalee’s remains for $250,000 and took an initial $25,000 payment while under federal surveillance. Investigators captured him on video handling the money and meeting Holloway’s lawyer during the operation.

According to news accounts and FBI affidavits, the $25,000 was split between cash and a wire transfer, and was meant to be the first part of a larger payoff tied to specific proof of Natalee’s burial site. The information van der Sloot provided was false, and investigators later said they reviewed satellite images and interviewed witnesses to verify his claims. The documents now released by President Trump’s DOJ appear to fill in gaps about how closely agents tracked him before he left Aruba.

How investigators delayed arrest and what happened next

Federal and Aruban authorities did not immediately arrest van der Sloot after the sting, even though he had taken money and, according to later filings, completed the elements of extortion and fraud. The FBI has said it held off in hopes of building a stronger case that might also support a breakthrough in the long-stalled Natalee Holloway murder investigation. Instead, van der Sloot left Aruba, traveled to Peru, and on May 30, 2010, killed 21-year-old college student Stephany Flores in Lima.

Peruvian police later said van der Sloot confessed in detail to beating Flores to death in his hotel room after she saw material on his computer tied to the Holloway case. He was arrested in Chile, returned to Peru, and convicted of Flores’ murder, receiving a multi-decade prison sentence there. Only after Flores’ death, on June 3, 2010, did U.S. prosecutors formally charge van der Sloot with federal wire fraud and extortion for the Aruba sting involving Beth Holloway.

FBI’s defense and growing questions in Washington

The FBI has long denied that it “bungled” the operation, with officials saying in 2010 that the investigation “was not sufficiently developed” to bring charges before van der Sloot left Aruba. In public statements, the Bureau argued it could not control his movements in Peru before it had what it considered actionable evidence for a U.S. complaint and indictment. Critics, including some retired detectives and commentators, counter that the extortion was already complete when he took the money.

Under President Biden, House Judiciary Committee Republicans complained that the FBI failed to turn over internal records explaining how agents monitored van der Sloot’s travel and why they did not seek his arrest sooner. A 2024 letter from the committee said the Bureau’s responses left “unanswered questions about the missed opportunity to apprehend van der Sloot in 2010.” The Trump DOJ’s release of additional files to Van Susteren and others now gives Congress and the public a fuller view of those choices.

Why this case hits a nerve across the political spectrum

Natalee Holloway’s disappearance in 2005, during a graduation trip to Aruba, gripped the country and left many Americans with a lasting distrust of how foreign and U.S. authorities handled powerful suspects. Van der Sloot was arrested and released multiple times in Aruba but was never charged with Natalee’s murder, even as her family and many viewers believed he was responsible. In 2023, he finally confessed in a sworn proffer letter to killing Natalee and dumping her body at sea, yet no murder charge followed because of Aruban law and earlier decisions.

If all goes as planned… next Wed on Substack (and I will tweet a simple link) I will post the FBI documents I got via FOIA which shows FBI bungled the Joran van der Sloot sting in 2010 and he got $25,000, and then fled and murdered another woman 2 weeks later and FBI kept it… pic.twitter.com/5dm4bw074r

— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) July 23, 2026

For many citizens on both the right and the left, the new FBI and DOJ records feel like another example of a system that seems to bend over backward for process but not for victims’ safety. People who already distrust “elite” decision-makers see a simple pattern: a known predator was on tape taking money from a grieving mother, law enforcement hesitated, and an innocent young woman in Peru paid with her life. The case raises a hard question both parties now ask more often: when the government says its hands are tied, who is really being protected?