Joran van der Sloot Expected to Plead Guilty Wednesday to Extorting Natalee Holloway's Mother: Lawyer

Natalee Holloway went missing in 2005 on a trip to Aruba to celebrate her high school graduation

Nearly two decades after Natalee Holloway’s disappearance, the man long-connected to the high schooler’s unsolved case is expected to go in front of an American court and plead guilty — to extortion, a lawyer for Natalee's mother tells PEOPLE.

Joran van der Sloot – now 36 and serving a 28-year murder sentence in Peru after confessing to the killing of another student, Stephany Flores Ramírez – was extradited to Alabama in June to face one count of extortion and one count of wire fraud in connection with Natalee's case.

A Friday entry in the Northern District of Alabama’s court record reviewed by PEOPLE suggests that van der Sloot, who originally pleaded not guilty to the charges, may reverse course and admit that he extorted money from Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway, following her daughter’s disappearance. Van der Sloot’s plea and sentencing hearing is set for Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. Central Time, according to the online entry.

Related: Joran van der Sloot, Suspect in Natalee Holloway Case, Arrives in U.S. to Face Charges

John Q. Kelly, a lawyer for Beth, tells PEOPLE that van der Sloot is expected to plead guilty in the case and that as part of the plea agreement federal prosecutors struck, van der Sloot agreed to disclose details of Natalee’s death — perhaps finally providing Beth with the answers she has sought since losing her only child. (Both the AP and The New York Times report the expected plea deal.)

Related: Natalee Holloway's Mom Returns to Aruba 15 Years After Daughter's Still-Unsolved Disappearance

Natalee was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot during a high school graduation trip to Aruba on May 30, 2005. Van der Sloot, then 17, was arrested several times in connection to the 18-year-old’s disappearance but never charged. Natalee was legally declared dead in 2012, but her body was never found.

Then, exactly five years to the day of Natalee’s disappearance, van der Sloot would later admit to beating, choking and smothering 21-year-old Stephany to death in his hotel room in Lima. He reportedly told investigators that Stephany had seen an online message accusing him of Natalee’s disappearance, leading to the violence.

Related: Inside Natalee Holloway's Final Hours Before She Vanished: 'I Remember Seeing Her in a White Car Driving Away'

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Also in 2010, nearly 3,000 miles away, a grand jury in Alabama indicted him for extorting $25,000 from Beth to be shown “the location of Natalee Holloway’s remains and the circumstances of her death” and trying to get another $225,000 “upon positive identification of the remains,” according to the indictment obtained by PEOPLE.

Peru granted the “temporary surrender” of van der Sloot to stand trial in Alabama before returning to Peru to finish his sentence, U.S. federal prosecutors said in a statement this summer. He would then return to the United States to serve time for his extortion conviction.

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