Untangling Joran van der Sloot’s Lies About Natalee Holloway’s Murder

Joran Sends Mixed Messages

In 2008, Joran was in Thailand when he offered Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren an exclusive interview.

Investigative journalist Steph Watts, a producer and correspondent for On the Record for Greta Van Susteren at the time, explained in the Peacock documentary that he was tasked with going to Thailand to make the arrangements, which would include paying Joran $25,000 to secure the exclusive on what happened to Natalee.

But it was illegal to bring more than $5,000 at once into the country, so Steph had to entertain the “agitated” young man before they could wire more funds. He said at one point Joran asked if the producer could just get him the money from his own personal bank account.

At the same time, Steph recalled, Joran was “incredibly charming. I had to constantly remind myself of why I was there and who he was. He was cordial, he was funny, but I realized how incredibly dangerous of a situation I was in. He could have snapped on me.” 

Joran told Greta that he arranged to sell Natalee for $10,000 to a man from Venzuela interested in blond American girls. He claimed that, after meeting Natalee, he arranged to bring her to the beach for the exchange.

On the way to the airport after the interview, Steph recalled, Greta got a text from Joran reading, “Everything I told you was a lie. I just did it for the money.”

Fox News ran the interview, disclosing Joran’s retraction and that he’d been paid. Greta noted it was unclear which version of his story, if any, was true.