Natalee Holloway case: Man who claimed to help Joran van der Sloot dispose of teen's body is stabbed to death

NORTH PORT, Fla. — In the 2017 series The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway, John Christopher Ludwick made headlines when claiming he helped Joran van der Sloot dispose of the missing teen's body.

Now he, too, is dead.

Ludwick, 32, of Port Charlotte, Fla., a community northwest of Fort Myers, Fla., was stabbed to death Tuesday after he attempted to kidnap a woman from her vehicle in nearby North Port, police said.

Ludwick was roommates with the woman at one point and wanted a romantic relationship with her, but she didn't, North Port police spokesman Joshua Taylor said.

"He essentially ambushed her getting out of her car, going into her home," said Taylor.

The woman was able to wrestle a knife from Ludwick, then stabbed him in the abdomen, police said.

“It appears that the male subject who has passed was attempting to kidnap a young woman as she exited her vehicle in her driveway. They are familiar with each other,” police said in a statement on Facebook. “A struggle ensued, and he is the one who ended up stabbed. He then fled the area on foot. He was found nearby suffering from the stab wounds.”

Ludwick was airlifted to a local hospital, where he died. The woman won't be charged, Taylor said.

"From every ounce of evidence we have so far, she was a victim in this case," he added.

In the Facebook statement, police said they were aware of Ludwick’s history and comments surrounding Holloway’s disappearance. “The correct authorities who are working that case have been notified. Our investigation in this local case is ongoing. Currently, there are no reports yet available. We will provide when they are.”

Natalee Holloway disappeared in 2005 during a high school graduation trip to Aruba. Van der Sloot, who was the last person seen with the 18-year-old, was never charged with her death. He is now in a prison in Peru, having been convicted of murdering a woman there in 2010.

In The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway program, which followed Holloway's father and a private investigator as they chased a lead in the case, Ludwick claimed van der Sloot paid him $1,500 to dig up Holloway's remains and cremate them. He was not charged in the case.

“The idea was to crush everything to the point where it wasn’t recognizable as her bones or skull or anything like that,” Ludwick said on the show, which aired last fall.

Contributing: Matthew Diebel, USA TODAY. Follow Stan Chambers on Twitter: @webjournoguy