Overview
- Peru’s prison authority INPE and the Justice Ministry say staff found Van Der Sloot hanging with an improvised strip of blanket around 9:50–10:00 a.m. Saturday during breakfast rounds in Pavilion 1.
- Guards intervened immediately, he was medically stabilized and transferred for continued monitoring, and prison security measures were reinforced while an internal evaluation proceeds.
- INPE officials say he is receiving psychological care; in a televised interview, Van Der Sloot described a depressive episode, called himself a psychiatric patient, and characterized the act as a mistake.
- Days before the incident, he appeared on Peruvian television to apologize to the family of Stephany Flores, whose 2010 killing in Lima led to his 28-year sentence in Peru.
- Van Der Sloot is internationally known for the Flores case and for a 2023 U.S. conviction for extortion and wire fraud tied to the Natalee Holloway investigation.