Judge asked to declare Natalee Holloway dead

By msnbc.com staff and news services

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - An Alabama judge has scheduled a hearing in Birmingham on whether to sign a court order declaring Natalee Holloway dead more than six years after the 18-year-old woman disappeared in Aruba.

Thursday afternoon's hearing was scheduled before a suspect questioned in Holloway's disappearance, Joran van der Sloot, decided to plead guilty Wednesday to killing a young woman in Peru.

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Natalee Holloway of Mountain Brook, Ala. went missing while on a high school graduation trip in Aruba.

Holloway suspect: I killed woman in Peru

Probate Judge Alan King?will be?hearing a request by Holloway's father to have her declared dead. The judge ruled in September that Dave Holloway had met the legal presumption of death for his daughter. He set the hearing Thursday to allow time for anyone to come forward.

Dave Holloway's attorney, Mark White, says no new evidence has emerged.

On Wednesday, Van der Sloot pleaded guilty to the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old woman who died five years to the day after the disappearance of Holloway, an Alabama woman who was celebrating her high school graduation in Aruba and was seen leaving a nightclub with van der Sloot. Her body has never been found.

Van der Sloot was arrested twice in the Holloway case but he was never charged due to a lack of evidence. Holloway's family has criticized Dutch authorities for not making more progress in the case.

Van der Sloot has told police he strangled Flores, a skilled poker player and the daughter of a wealthy businessman, after he found her looking at his laptop computer in his hotel room.

The laptop contained emails about Holloway's death.

Thursday's hearing on Holloway's death declaration was scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. ET, NBC's Alabama's13.com said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/12/10139606-judge-asked-to-declare-natalee-holloway-dead

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