After Joran Van der Sloot finally confessed to killing Natalee Holloway, true crime junkies are wondering about Van der Sloot’s wife, Leidy Figueroa.
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The Gist:
Joran Van der Sloot, who confessed to killing Natalee Holloway on Oct. 18, 2023, was married to Leidy Figueroa, whom he met while in prison in Peru.
Their relationship led to marriage and the birth of a daughter, but it ended in divorce when Van der Sloot pursued a new relationship with a younger girlfriend.
Van der Sloot’s new girlfriend, Eva Pacohuanaco, was accused of helping him smuggle drugs into another jail in Peru, resulting in an extended sentence for him.
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It’s rare that a longstanding murder case with little evidence gets a satisfying conclusion but on Oct. 18, 2023, it finally happened. Dutchman Joran Van der Sloot confessed to killing Natalee Holloway in 2005. For years, authorities believed that Van der Sloot was guilty but didn’t have enough evidence to convict him. However, another murder kept him behind bars.
In May 2010, Van der Sloot killed 21-year-old Stephany Flores after she won big time in a casino where they met. He confessed in June and was sentenced to 28 years in prison in Peru. But while he was in prison, he had the opportunity to meet women — more specifically, a woman named Leidy Figueroa, who would later become his wife.
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Joran van der Sloot and his wife, Leidy Figueroa, divorced earlier in 2023.
2023 has been a big year for Van der Sloot — first, he got a divorce and then, he got extradited to the U.S. for a trial. While the trial was initially because Van der Sloot attempted to sell Holloway’s whereabouts to her family for $250,000, he ended up confessing to her murder in a proffer letter. Perhaps he has been softened throughout his years in prison, or perhaps, he doesn’t want to face his many romances in the outside world.
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Van der Sloot and Figueroa met in 2010 while she was selling goods and visiting a friend in the Miguel Castro Castro maximum security prison, where Van der Sloot was separated from the general prison population. During their relationship, Figueroa got pregnant, so the two wed in a private ceremony at the Piedras Gordas maximum security prison in July 2014. Later that year, Van der Sloot was transferred to the Challapalca prison in the mountainous South of Peru.
“He got his new girlfriend, Leidy Figueroa, pregnant thanks to Peru’s generous conjugal visitation policies.” lmao
While he was locked up, Figueroa gave birth to their daughter in November 2014, and they named her Dusha Trudie van der Sloot after Van der Sloot’s grandmother, Trudie. Their daughter is now 9 years old. But in 2020, Van der Sloot was accused of bringing drugs into Challapalca with the help of his girlfriend, Eva Pacohuanaco.
Van der Sloot’s lawyer, Maximo Altez, told Daily Mail, “Leidy continued seeing him for a while. Joran had a bunch of girlfriends … lots of girls used to visit him … but Leidy was the most loyal.” That’s how they ended up married in the first place. But by 2021, Van der Sloot asked Figueroa for a divorce to be with his “prettier and younger” girlfriend, Pacohuanaco, who was just 22 years old at the time.
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Source: Getty Images
Altez shared that Van der Sloot always had women writing to him and sending him photos. “He still writes to girls and they send him pictures,” according to Altez, although there’s tighter security at Challapalca, which means fewer visitors. Even still, Altez said that Figueroa “still visits” because she “likes the punishment … and is nothing without her husband.”
It seems that Van der Sloot might have gotten off lucky, because his 20-year American sentence will be served concurrently with his Peru sentence. But his ex-wife still has yet to comment on the situation, according to various outlets.
When someone shares how they saw $14 aluminum foil in the supermarket, people are appalled at the level of inflation, easily beyond 4 to 8%.
Sometimes, we watch TikTok videos to learn about different people’s opinions or see incredible talent. Other times, we hate watch videos that make us angry at capitalism, such as TikToker Deflina’s video in which she finds a roll of Reynold’s Wrap aluminum foil for $14. While we don’t know exactly where Delfina is, we know enough to know that that’s way too much to pay for foil.
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As she shares her shock with the world, people quickly empathize and share how they avoided the inflation. But even still, we can’t help but feel the pain of inflation in our bank accounts. Maybe Delfina will be okay, but many people won’t be. Aluminum foil isn’t the only thing that’s breaking the bank these days.
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TikToker Delfina shared a video in which she finds a $14 roll of aluminum foil in a supermarket.
In her 13-second video, Delfina simply says, “Wait, I’m sorry,” as she pans to the $14 price of aluminum foil. And that’s when it’s marked down from $15! “I guess I haven’t bought foil in a while? Aluminum foil is $14? Is this a joke or are you serious?” She’s more bewildered than she is angry and it seems like she’s not actually going to purchase the overpriced aluminum foil.
More of the issue is just that the foil is there at that price in the first place! It’s truly absurd. Whether she’s at a big brand supermarket or a local store, no foil should cost that much. I even zoomed in on the foil to see if it’s in bulk or if it’s just a regular roll, and it’s just 200 square feet, which is a normal to large size of foil.
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For reference, a 150-square-foot roll is $9.32 from Walmart, which is supposed to be a budget option. Their 225-square-foot roll is $14.16, which means that the roll Delfina found isn’t even that overpriced. But the commenters aren’t wrong to remember a time when aluminum foil was $3, probably because those $3 rolls were much smaller in size.
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Commenters agree that inflation has gone too far and point to Costco as a saving grace.
Everyone in the comments agrees that the foil Delfina found is way too expensive, even if that is the standard price nowadays for name-brand foil. Most hoped that she didn’t actually purchase it (which she didn’t confirm or deny) while others were outraged at supermarkets for hiking up prices.
Our best guess based on Delfina’s profile is that she was in a suburb or a rural area, which means that aluminum foil is probably much more expensive at supermarkets in cities like New York City or San Francisco. The fact that a normal size of aluminum foil can cost $20 nowadays feels like it’s out of some sort of dystopian novel.
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One commenter even brought up the horrors of inflation, pointing back to the days of our war-lorn great-grandparents who washed and saved their tin foil. Others pointed out that this is capitalism at its finest: bankrupt the middle and lower classes so that the wealthiest have full control over society. We’re basically already there with this seemingly 75% inflation rate!
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Many people also started listing other household items that grew in price by two or three times in the last couple of years. Olive oil, butter, deodorant, cereal, limes, toothpaste, zip-lock bags, and other basic items have all hiked up in price.
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While not all of these items are necessities, they do make our lives easier and save us time. And we’ve all heard the age-old adage that time is money, so hiking the prices of these items is once again capitalism at work.
Some commenters, however, joked that they bought bulk aluminum foil from Costco over 10 years ago, and that has lasted longer than their marriages! So I guess the moral of the story is if you’re going to walk down the aisle, you should probably say, ‘till our Costco aluminum foil runs out do us part.
Where are Amy Carlson’s kids now? The “Love Has Won” cult leader
Source: MAX/KDVR
The Gist:
Deceased cult leader Amy Carlson was the infamous organizer of the “Love Has Won” organization.
She was referred to as “Mother God” by her followers.
Amy had several actual children from three different fathers.
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If you want to be a cult leader (no, we do not actually endorse anyone becoming a cult leader), one of the most toxic traits you should have is an over-inflated ego and bloated sense of self-worth. Many known cult leaders do this by exuding more charisma and confidence than they actually have, while others are more manipulative in using the veil of mutual love and respect for their followers to earn their undying loyalty.
To that end, calling yourself the reincarnation of Jesus Christ is a good way to do that.
Amy Carlson had that technique mastered. She was the co-founder of Love Has Won (LHW), a religious movement that ran from 1971 and persisted until April 2021 when the group was dissolved following Amy’s death.
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During her time as a cult leader, Amy positioned herself as “Mother God” and convinced her followers that they were her children. However, she had three actual children in her lifetime as well. Here’s what they’re up to now.
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Deceased cult leader Amy Carlson’s kids have tried to distance themselves from her legacy.
During her cult activity, many of Amy’s followers referred to her as “Mother” or “Mom,” indicating that she exerted a maternal presence and influence on them.
That said, it’s tragically ironic that she had three actual kids of her own. According to several reports from sources like Business Insider, Amy had three children by three different fathers in three separate marriages by the time she was in her early 20s. According to her own mother, Linda Haythorne, she never held that maternal instinct for them.
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Her children came in the form of eldest son Cole Carlson, daughter Madi, and a third unnamed son. Only Cole has previously come forward about what it was like to have Amy as a mother, and their relationship was complicated, to say the least.
In an interview with BBC, Cole revealed that she had abandoned him when she was 12 in order to start up her cult activity. Despite this, he still loved his mother deeply.
“She wasn’t the best mother even when she was around, but I loved her to death,” he stated.
Other than that, he’s led a relatively normal life. As of 2021, Cole is based in Portland, Ore., and studies biology.
Upon hearing news of his mother’s death and subsequent mummification, he has been outspoken against the splintered cult’s continued activity in her name.
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“It makes me mad and I really don’t want to see this work continued, especially with [my mother’s] name attached or in her honor,” he proclaimed in an interview with KDVR.
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As for Madi, The Cinemaholicreports that she has a Master’s degree in social work and is currently based in Georgia. While she’s been less vocal about her mother’s cult status, she has tried to distance herself from her mother’s reputation.
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You can learn more about Amy Carlson in Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God, a docuseries streaming on MAX.
CNN host Anderson Cooper doesn’t often discuss religion, in part because he feels that doing so would make him appear biased as a journalist.
Source: Getty Images
The Gist:
Anderson Cooper appears to be agnostic, but he doesn’t discuss his religious beliefs that frequently in public.
Anderson does openly discuss his own grief and allows those he interviews to share their own perspectives on faith.
Anderson’s podcast is all about the grief he feels from the loss of his mother and father.
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Although CNN host Anderson Cooper has been open with audiences about certain parts of his life, including his sexuality, he doesn’t often discuss his religious views on the air. As he dives deeper into grief in his podcast, though, many of Anderson’s fans want to know more about his religious views.
Anderson’s podcast, All There Is, dives deep into Anderson’s grief over losing his mother and asks hard questions about what it means to move on. Now in its second season, many listeners want to know whether Anderson’s religion has anything to do with the show.
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Source: Getty Images
What is Anderson Cooper’s religion?
Anderson is agnostic and doesn’t often discuss his faith in public. While he has focused on grief in his podcast, he has usually allowed his guests to bring their own faiths into the discussion. They explain the way their faith has guided who they are. If Anderson has any religious beliefs, he hides them well.
During Anderson’s conversations with Stephen Colbert, who is a devout Catholic, he often let Stephen discuss how faith had shaped who he became.
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Anderson, who is known for being a hard-hitting journalist, also avoids discussing religion because of the way it could shape his coverage or perceptions of him. His mother was Catholic, but he doesn’t discuss his own religious beliefs openly, and there’s no reason that he should unless he feels compelled to do so.
Anderson’s podcast is about grief and loss.
In Anderson’s podcast, which is now in its second season, he has hard conversations about grief and loss, and whether you ever really find a way to overcome it.
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“In Season 2 of All There Is, Anderson continues his deeply personal journey to understand his own feelings of grief in all its complexities, and in moving and honest discussions, learn from others who’ve experienced life-altering losses,” the show’s description reads.
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Anderson’s own grief is often about his mother.
Anderson, who lost his father when he was 10 and his mother in 2019, has been open about the way losing both of his parents has shaped him. In an interview with Stephen Colbert from 2019, he explained that he believed that his father’s death changed the person he became, and he wasn’t sure whether it was for the better.
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In a video promoting the second season of his podcast, Anderson said that he had been too scared to look through a pile of belongings from his parents that was in his basement. He added that it was the listeners of his podcast who helped encourage him to do it. As his podcast makes clear, grief is an ongoing struggle and Anderson is still working through his own.
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