When police in Lima arrested Joran van der Sloot in May 2010 for the murder of Stephany Flores Ramirez, another mysterious saga appeared to be at an end. The young Dutchman had been at the center of the investigation into the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, a young American who went missing in Aruba in 2005 after leaving a bar late at night with van der Sloot and two of his friends. Her body has yet to be found, and van der Sloot's many retracted versions of what happened made prosecution difficult. But the Flores murder may have sealed his fate. According to Peruvian police, he was furious that Flores was snooping into his laptop and asking questions about Holloway. "It was an invasion of my privacy. She had no right," he allegedly told the investigating officers. He said that he and Flores fought and that he beat her repeatedly, breaking her neck. Van der Sloot, who says he was tricked into signing a confession in the Flores killing, is awaiting trial in Peru. Meanwhile, Holloway's mother spoke out about an attempt by van der Sloot to extort money in exchange for information about her daughter. The case in Aruba has not moved forward.
The Top 10 Everything of 2010
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- Top 10 Biz Deals
- Top 10 Buzzwords
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- Top 10 Facebook Trends
- Top 10 Fashion Statements
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- Top 10 Late-Night Jokes
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- Top 10 Movie Performances
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- Top 10 Reality-TV Moments
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- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Scientific Discoveries
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- Top 10 Talented Web Videos
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- Top 10 Travel Moments
- Top 10 TV Commercials
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- Top 10 Twitter Moments
- Top 10 World News Stories
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In 50 wide-ranging lists, TIME surveys the highs and lows, the good and the bad, of the past 12 months