Virginia professor, former FBI profiler, recalls impressions of Natalee Holloway’s killer

Oct 19, 2023

News

MANASSAS, Va. (WAVY) — Mary Ellen O’Toole remembers something familiar about Joran van der Sloot.

Long the only suspect in the 2005 death of Natalee Holloway on Aruba, van der Sloot finally told authorities this week what happened as part of a plea deal convicting him of trying to extort money from Natalee’s mother in exchange for information about her death.

O’Toole is a professor of forensic science with George Mason University. She was working as an FBI profiler back then, and the agency did not have jurisdiction on foreign soil. So Dutch authorities tapped her and a colleague as consultants, giving O’Toole access to their interviews.

Mary Ellen O’Toole

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Forensic Investigations

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