Joran van der Sloot, indicted in 2010 on extortion and wire-fraud charges in connection with the disappearance in Aruba of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, is being extradited to the United States form Peru.

For the mother of the Mountain Brook teen, Beth Holloway, it marks a turning point in a long and painful pursuit of justice.

“She was abducted and murdered there. Now almost exactly eighteen years later, her perpetrator, Joran van der Sloot, has been extradited to Birmingham to answer for his crimes,” Beth Holloway said in a statement.

Here is complete coverage of the case

“I was blessed to have had Natalee in my life for 18 years, and as of this month, I have been without her for exactly 18 years,” the statement continued.

“She would be 36 years old now. It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many is going to pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee.”

Here is a timeline of the case:

May 30, 2005: Natalee Holloway, 18, of Mountain Brook disappears while on a high school graduation trip to Aruba.

June 1, 2005: At 9:41 p.m., a day after Natalee disappears, Fox News Channel is the first to take the story national. “Tonight, a frantic search is underway for a missing Alabama girl,” Greta Van Susteren said. Her less-than-one-minute report began an onslaught of media attention.

June 5, 2005: Aruban police detain former hotel security guards Nick John and Abraham Jones on suspicion of murder and kidnapping. Both are released June 13 without being charged.

June 9, 2005: Joran van der Sloot, Satish Kalpoe and Deepak Kalpoe are arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and murder.

June 17, 2005: Disc jockey Steve Gregory Croes is arrested.

June 22, 2005: Aruban police detain Paulus van der Sloot, Joran’s father.

June 26, 2005: Paulus van der Sloot and Croes are released.

July 4, 2005: The Kalpoe brothers are released without charges. Also that day, the Royal Netherlands Air Force deploys F-16 aircraft to aid in the search.

July 25, 2005: A reward for Natalee’s safe return is increased from $200,000 to $1 million.

Aug. 26, 2005: The Kalpoe brothers are rearrested.

Sept. 3, 2005: All of the detained suspects are released without charges.

Sept. 14, 2005: The Combined Appeals Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba remove all restrictions against the previously arrested suspects.

April 5, 2006: Dave Holloway publishes a book, which chronicles his frustrations and anguish during the first days, weeks and months of Natalee’s disappearance.

Nov. 21, 2007: Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers are rearrested in the Holloway case.

Nov. 30, 2007: A judge orders the release of the Kalpoe brothers.

Dec. 7, 2007: Van der Sloot is released without charges.

Dec. 18, 2007: Aruban prosecutors officially declare the Holloway case closed.

Feb. 1, 2008: Aruban prosecutors announce they are reopening the case. A judge, however, refuses to arrest van der Sloot.

Feb. 10, 2010: Paulus van der Sloot dies of a heart attack while playing tennis.

May 30, 2010: Five years to the day of Natalee’s disappearance, 21-year-old Stephany Flores is murdered in Joran van der Sloot’s Peru hotel.

June 3, 2010: Van der Sloot is arrested in Chile and deported to Peru the following day.

June 3, 2010: Van der Sloot is charged in Birmingham with extortion and wire fraud. U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance obtains an arrest warrant, and van der Sloot is later indicted.

Jan. 12, 2012: Jefferson County Probate Judge Alan King rules Dave Holloway meets the requirements for the legal presumption of death and Natalee is legally declared dead.

May 2015: Ten years after the disappearance, Dutch citizen Jurrien de Jong came forward claiming that Holloway’s body could be found in a crawl space at a Marriott vacation property in Aruba. Aruban officials said there’s no way de Jong’s claims can be true because there was no construction ongoing at that spot at that time. “Actually, there is no truth to that story,’’ Beth Holloway said on the Today show. “Every time there’s an anniversary, whether it’s the five-year mark, and now it’s the 10-year mark, there’s always, I hate to say it, just like some crazies that just come out and they have so placed themselves in Natalee’s story. It’s empty. There is nothing to that story.”

Feb. 1, 2016: Tabloids claimed to have hidden camera footage of a conversation between van der Sloot and his wife, Leidy, inside the Challapalca Prison. The video is in Dutch, and translated. There are obvious breaks in the video released by the tabloid “I always lied to the police,” van der Sloot said. “I never told the truth. I made up so many stories against the police … Also when I was younger, I never told everything. The police just never knew what they had to ask me.” Holloway’s parents said those reports of Joran were nothing more than a publicity stunt and “absolutely meaningless.”

Aug. 16, 2017: Dave Holloway and private investigator T.J. Ward announced on TODAY that an 18-month investigation has led them to discover human remains that are being DNA tested to confirm if they are Natalee’s. The DNA bone sample was ruled out as Holloway after it failed to match to her mother.

March 14, 2018: John Ludwick, who claimed in a documentary that he helped dispose of Holloway’s remains, tried to kidnap a young woman from her Florida driveway – and was killed in the process. Ludwick, a 32-year-old from Port Charlotte, ran away from the home but was found with stab wounds nearby, police said. He died at a hospital.

Nov. 9, 2019: Beth Holloway teamed up with Texas EquuSearch to join the search for missing Alabama college student Aniah Blanchard. Aniah was later found murdered. “I followed Natalee’s case and I’ve always admired her for her strength — just thought she was an amazing lady,” Aniah’s mother told ABC News of Beth Holloway. “She’s an amazing woman and I think she’s going to be a great support for us.”

June 27, 2020: Natalee Holloway was trending on Twitter as reports of her supposed “rescue” also were making the rounds on Facebook. Her father, Dave Holloway, has one word for the wild rumors: “FAKE.” The posts followed speculation that an American woman rescued in a U.S. military operation in Honduras several months was Natalee.

May 10, 2023: Peru issued an executive order allowing the temporary extradition of van der Sloot to the United States. Once he arrives in the U.S., Van der Sloot will be arraigned in federal court in Birmingham. Federal authorities in Alabama contend van der Sloot exploited the fear of Holloway’s mother, Beth, that she would never find her daughter’s body or know what happened to her unless she paid him $250,000. Van der Sloot faces one count of wire fraud and one count of extortion in connection with a FBI investigation that started in April 2010 in Birmingham.