At long last, the Holloway family is closer to getting the closure they undeniably deserve. Joran van der Sloot, the man who has long been suspected of having murdered 18-year-old Natalee Holloway while the teen was enjoying her graduation trip in Aruba, has finally admitted to the crime, after years of emotional, psychological, and financial damages to the victim’s family in the form of lying and extortion. For van der Sloot, it was not enough that he killed, not one, but two innocent girls at the start of their young adult lives; his actions in between the horrific incidents and thereafter proved how deep his callousness could go.
For a man who’s ostensibly surrounded by so many red flags, one would think no one would really be willing to tie the knot with him, especially knowing of the blood on his hands. Well, wrong. Leidy Figueroa did so in 2014, while van der Sloot was serving his 28-year sentence in the capital of Peru for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramírez, which took place 5 years after he allegedly wantonly claimed Holloway’s life.
Who is Leidy Figueroa and did she know of Joran van der Sloot’s past?
In July 2014, CNN reported that Joran van der Sloot had become a taken man while imprisoned on the murder conviction. He was 26 years old at the time and Leidy Figueroa, an accountant, was pregnant, with their baby’s birth being due for that September. Unlike in the United States, inmates in Peru can receive their loved ones in their cells. While this may indeed be a good policy to adopt on a case-by-case basis for less dangerous criminals, it might be too much for first-degree murderers, way more than is appropriate. I do not think I am in the minority in defending that; cutting someone’s life short in the cold-blooded way van der Sloot did, should not be rewarded with this kind of human contact.
So, one of the first questions that comes to mind is: Did Figueroa know about van der Sloot’s past? The CNN reporters incisively wrote: “There’s no reason to believe that Figueroa didn’t know about van der Sloot’s past when the two first encountered one another.” They married in prison; it wouldn’t be too difficult for Figueroa to find out why her fiancé was incarcerated, even if he were to lie to her.
Divorce filing and new girlfriend
Taking into consideration all the facts surrounding van der Sloot, it would be hard to believe that Figueroa would be getting anywhere close to a happily ever after with her marriage. In 2022, Maximo Altez, van der Sloot’s attorney, revealed that the convicted killer had filed for divorce. On May 17, 2023, the Daily Mail put out an exclusive report revealing that the reason for the split was motivated by the criminal’s infatuation with a “prettier and younger” woman, Eva Pacohuanaco, who allegedly smuggled him drugs while he was serving his sentence.
The outlet also reported that Altez stated: “Leidy continued seeing him for a while. Joran had a bunch of girlfriends…lots of girls used to visit him…but Leidy was the most loyal.”
But loyalty, even for the most blindly loyal, clearly has limits. And reaching hers, Figueroa has also decided to remove the Dutch national’s surname from their daughter’s name. The update was given by The Messenger, translating a family representative’s statement from Spanish: “She doesn’t want his name to follow her daughter. So she will take ‘van der Sloot’ off her daughter’s name.”
Here’s hoping that, as much as it is possible, the father’s shadow does not follow his child, who is undeniably blameless in all of this. Even Figueroa, who made a clear lapse of judgment, and said controversial things that she would probably take back today, is not the right target for the hate that should be aimed at the man who bludgeoned two promising young lives to death – not to mention the many other proven malicious deeds. Only she will ever know what it was like to be married to the brutal killer for nearly a decade, a decision she made and may well still be living with.