19-year-old Natalee Holloway has been announced legally dead by Alabama Judge Alan King. The teen was reported missing during her vacation on the Caribbean island of Aruba 6 years ago.
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According to the Associated Press, Judge King announced his decision today at a hearing in a Birmingham courtroom. The hearing was scheduled after Dutchman Joran van der Sloot, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Peru to the 2010 murder of another woman. Joran was one of the suspects for the murder of Natalee.
Natalee Holloway disappeared on a high school graduation trip on May 30, 2005 and was last seen leaving a bar with Joran.
The United States is hoping to try Joran on their own grounds for extorting Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway, $25,000 for him to reveal where Natalee’s body is.
Natalee’s father, David Holloway, who is divorced from her mother, has been fighting for his daughter to be declared dead for months now. The judge made his decision after stating that David set the legal presumption for Natalee’s death and no one succeeded in proving that she may be alive.
It’s sad to know that Natalee may be out there somewhere, dead or alive, and her family can’t receive closure.
If Joran is truly guilty, we hope that he faces the ultimate justice!
