Had Joran van der Sloot not murdered her on a beach in Aruba on May 30, 2005, Natalee Holloway today would mark her 37th birthday.

In a few months time, she will be have been dead longer than she was alive.

What would have been a day of celebration for her loved ones comes three days after it was revealed van der Sloot had confessed to bludgeoning the 18-year-old to death and dragging her into the ocean after she fought off unwanted sexual advances.

The confession, accepted as true by her parents, seems to end a mystery that lasted more than 18 years when she vanished from a Mountain Brook High School graduation trip and grabbed the world’s attention.

“Natalee will be 18 forever in my heart,” her mother, Beth Holloway, wrote in a federal court victim impact statement.

That statement came as part of a guilty plea van der Sloot entered on charges he extorted Beth in 2010 with a false promise he would lead her to Natalee’s body in 2010 in exchange for $250,000.

“I think about what kind of doctor she would have become. She would be married. Have children. My grandchildren,” her statement read.

The Memphis native who moved to Alabama in 2000 was expected to attend the University of Alabama in fall of 2005.

In high school, Natalee was in the National Honor Society, studied Spanish and was a member of American Field Service, which works with foreign exchange students. She had taken trips to Europe, Canada and some cruises. She planned to study premed that fall on an academic scholarship.

In the Mountain Brook yearbook, Holloway’s senior quote came from the old Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Freebird.” It says: “If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me? For I must be traveling on now, there’s too many places I haven’t seen.”

Legally declared dead in 2012, if van der Sloot’s confession is true, her remains will almost certainly never be found.

Natalee’s father, Dave wrote that he believes what van der Sloot told investigators.

“We are convinced that a higher power will pronounce the ultimate judgment on this defendant and anyone else who helped him prevent us from bringing Natalee home,” his statement read.

In his confession, which he gave in addition to taking a polygraph, van der Sloot said she kneed him in the crotch after he tried “feeling her up.” He said he kicked her in the face, bashed her head in with a cinder block, and dragged her into the water before walking home.

Beth Holloway told The Associated Press she recognized her feisty daughter in van der Sloot’s description of her kneeing him between the legs when he refused to stop.

“Yes, I said, ‘That’s her,’” Beth Holloway recalled with a brief smile. “She fought like hell. I think she fought like hell with her killer. She stood her ground.”

“We’ve been searching so desperately for those answers,” she said. “It’s hard to hear what he did, but it’s very victorious to finally be at the end of this nightmare.”

In court, van der Sloot said he is now a Christian.

“I would like to take this chance to apologize to the Holloway family, to apologize to my own family, to say I hope the statement I provided brings some kind of closure to everyone involved .. I am no longer that person I was back then.”

Van der Sloot is expected to remain in a Peruvian prison until 2043 for murdering 21-year-old University of Lima business student Stephany Flores Ramirez in his hotel room on May 30, 2010 — exactly five years after Natalee died.

Van der Sloot married a Peruvian woman in July 2014 in a ceremony at a maximum security prison and fathered a child while in prison.

If he is freed before 2043, he will serve the rest of a 20-year sentence for extorting Beth Holloway in the U.S.

Prosecutors in Aruba on Thursday asked the U.S. Department of Justice to send them records from its investigation of Joran van der Sloot after his confession. In Aruba, the statute of limitations for homicide is 12 years.

However, whether that statute will prevent Aruba from charging him in her death “cannot be answered with a straightforward yes or no,” Ann Angela, a spokeswoman for Aruban prosecutors, said.

“It depends on several factors within the investigation. The Police Force, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Aruba and other investigative entities will follow up on any serious leads that could solve the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.”

While there are no clear answers on whether he will face punishment for Natalee’s death, ”van der Sloot’s confession means we’ve finally reached the end of our never ending nightmare….Being over is better than closure,” Beth said Wednesday.

“She was smart, and so accomplished, and I have no doubt she would have made all her dreams come true. She had real hope. The hope that filled her heart fills mine, and I will wake up every day remembering who she was,” Holloway said in her impact statement to van der Sloot.

“You destroyed all of this. You terminated her potential, her dreams and her possibilities when you bludgeoned her to death I 2005,” Holloway said. “You took away my son’s big sister. You changed the course of our lives and turned them upside down.”

“You didn’t get what you wanted from Natalee, your sexual satisfaction, so you brutally killed her….You are the one in Aruba no one wants to be, the black mark on the island,” she said.

“I have no doubt she would have made all her dreams come true. She really would have,” Beth Holloway said.