What We Know About The Brutal 2010 Murder Of Stephany Flores
By ANDREW AMELINCKX
History - Crime
In May 2010, 21-year-old Stephany Flores was murdered by then 22-year-old Joran van der Sloot in a hotel room after he got an ominous message while the two were together.
Five years earlier, Alabama teen Natalee Holloway disappeared on the island of Aruba. Van der Sloot was the main suspect in Holloway's disappearance.
Flores and van der Sloot were playing online poker on his computer in a Lima hotel room when he got an instant message about his involvement in the Holloway case.
When Flores learned who van der Sloot was, she hit him. He told Peru police, "At that moment, impulsively, with my right elbow. I hit her in the face exactly on top of her nose."
When van der Sloot struck Flores while she was on the bed, her head snapped back and hit the wall, then she began to pass out as blood poured down her face.
Van der Sloot then took off his bloody shirt and suffocated Flores. He then stole the equivalent of $300 U.S. in Peruvian currency, Flores’ credit cards, her van, then he escaped.
Van der Sloot told the hotel staff not to bother "his girl" as he left with a backpack. On June 2, a Miraflores Hotel Tac employee discovered Flores' body in van der Sloot’s room.
The authorities caught van der Sloot, a Dutch national, in Chile on June 3. van der Sloot pleaded guilty to murdering Flores in 2012 and he was sentenced to 28 years in prison.