Death of Nicky Verstappen

Nicky Verstappen
Born (1987-03-13)13 March 1987
Heibloem, Limburg, Netherlands[1]
Disappeared 10 August 1998 (aged 11)
Brunssum, Limburg, Netherlands
Status Found dead 11 August 1998
Cause of death Homicide of undetermined etiology
Body discovered Landgraaf, Limburg, Netherlands
Resting place Heibloem, Limburg, Netherlands
Known for Victim of unsolved murder
Momument for Verstappen on the Brunssummerheide, near where his body was found.

Nicky Verstappen (13 March 1987 – 10 or 11 August 1998) was a Dutch boy who, aged 11, disappeared on the morning of 10 August 1998 from a summer camp he was attending in Brunssum, Limburg. His body was found on the evening of 11 August, 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) away in nearby Landgraaf. Despite extensive investigation, the case remained unsolved for twenty years.

On 26 August 2018, a 55-year-old man was arrested in Spain when DNA from his belongings and relatives matched samples taken from Verstappen's clothing, following the largest DNA-harvesting operation in Dutch history.[2][3]

Disappearance and body discovery

On Saturday, 8 August 1998, Verstappen and 36 other children took the bus from Heibloem to Brunssum to take part in a children's summer camp being held on the De Heikop camping grounds on the Brunssummerheide. Verstappen was last seen alive sometime between 05:00 and 06:00 on the morning of 10 August by a tentmate; later that morning, he was no longer in his sleeping bag. On 11 August, police and volunteers conducted a search for the boy; at 21:00, his body, naked from the waist up, was found in a pine grove on the Schinvelderweg in Landgraaf, 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) from the camp.[4][5] The body showed signs of sexual abuse, but the post-mortem did not determine the cause of death, and an initial examination for foreign DNA yielded nothing. A tissue and cigarette with human DNA were found near where the body was discovered; from this DNA a complete profile was compiled.[4]

Investigation

Joos Barten, the founder of the camp Verstappen disappeared from, was questioned extensively by police in the days following. A former headmaster of the local primary school in Heibloem, Barten had had convictions for child sexual abuse and admitted to being near the tent Verstappen slept in at 06:00 on 10 August. During the search for Verstappen, he pointed several times in the direction where the body was eventually discovered. A 15-year-old girl who had attended the teenagers' camp on De Heikop a few days earlier suspected that she had been sexually abused by Barten in her sleep. None of the camp staff were officially held as suspects.[4]

A reward of 25,000 guilders was offered by the Openbaar Ministerie in Maastricht for information on the identity of the perpetrator; this offer was doubled in 1999 with money raised by crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, who became a spokesperson for Verstappen's family.[6] Following a lack of leads, the investigation team was dissolved in November 1998, with a new team of investigators taking over the case between November 2000 and July 2001.[4][7] Between 2001 and 2007, a sex offender from Kerkrade was in and out of police custody while a number of witnesses claimed to have seen him in and around the camp around 10 August 1998; the sex offender died in August 2007. The case has also been linked to German serial killer Martin Ney, who killed three boys between 1992 and 2001.[4]

Seven or eight letters written by an anonymous author suggesting they had killed Verstappen were found on a monument for the boy on the Brunssummerheide between 2005 and July 2006. In January 2007, a 36-year-old man from Landgraaf was arrested on suspicion of having written the letters.[8][9] He was released two weeks later,[10] before being re-arrested in December for vandalising the monument.[11] One month later, he was sentenced to three months imprisonment for the vandalism.[12][13] The monument was vandalised again in April 2008 and August 2013.[14][15][16]

DNA profiling

Between December 1999 and January 2000, 35 men took part in a DNA test, but none of the samples matched those found at the crime scene.[17][18][19] In 2010, with foreign DNA having been found on Verstappen's body, police took DNA samples from 80 men, but still did not find a matching sample.[20][21] In November of that year, the remains of Joos Barten, the camp founder, who died in 2003, were exhumed for a DNA test.[22] His DNA also did not match that found on Verstappen's body.[23]

In January 2018, it was announced that 21,500 men in the Limburg province would be asked to give samples of their DNA in an attempt to trace Verstappen's killer.[24] This DNA-screening program took place between February and June, with a total of over 15,000 samples collected—the largest number in Dutch history,[25] almost twice the number of samples collected in the program that successfully traced the man who was convicted of Marianne Vaatstra's murder.[26] On 22 August, it was announced that DNA samples from the belongings and relatives of a 55-year-old man originally from Simpelveld, Jos Brech, who had been missing from his Vosges home for four months, matched DNA found on Verstappen's clothing.[3][27] Brech has a history of sexually abusing children[3] and is known to have been near the scene of the crime around the time it took place, though he was believed at the time to just be a passer-by.[2] Police located and arrested him in Spain, near Castellterçol, on 26 August,[3] and he was extradited to the Netherlands on 6 September.[28]

Aftermath

In 2003, folk band Rowwen Hèze released a song about the case, titled "Vlinder". Author Simon Vuyk published a book about the case titled De mysterieuze dood van Nicky Verstappen in 2010.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Nicky Verstappen". TVblik (in Dutch). Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  2. 1 2 "Suspect held over 1998 Dutch child death". BBC News. 27 August 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Ferrer, Isabel (28 August 2018). "Arrest of Dutch man in Barcelona could solve one of Holland's most infamous cases". El País. ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "De moord op Nicky Verstappen". Landelijke DNA-databank (in Dutch). 19 May 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  5. ↑ "Limburgs jongetje mogelijk ontvoerd uit tentenkamp op heide". Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant. 15 August 1998.
  6. ↑ "Explained: How one journalist helped solve the 20-year-old cold case of Nicky Verstappen". euronews. 2018-08-31. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  7. ↑ "Stop op onderzoek naar dood Nicky Verstappen". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 4 July 2001. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  8. ↑ "Arrestatie in oude moordzaak". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 9 January 2007.
  9. ↑ "OM: Stap verder na arrestatie in moordzaak-Nicky Verstappen". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 10 January 2007.
  10. ↑ "Verdachte in zaak Nicky naar inrichting". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 25 January 2007.
  11. ↑ "Vernieler monument opnieuw verdachte". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 28 December 2007.
  12. ↑ "Vernieler monument krijgt celstraf". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 23 January 2008.
  13. ↑ "Vernieler monument Verstappen krijgt celstraf". De Volkskrant (in Dutch). 22 January 2008. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  14. ↑ "Monument Nicky Verstappen vernield". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 15 April 2008.
  15. ↑ "Monument Verstappen beklad". Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (in Dutch). 12 August 2013. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  16. ↑ "Monument opnieuw besmeurd". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 17 August 2013.
  17. ↑ "DNA-onderzoek in zaak-Nicky Verstappen". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 8 December 1999.
  18. ↑ "DNA-onderzoek bij priesterstudenten". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 15 January 2000.
  19. ↑ "DNA-onderzoek in moordzaken levert nog geen daders op". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 29 February 2000.
  20. ↑ "Geen DNA-match Nicky Verstappen". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 13 October 2010.
  21. ↑ "Geen match DNA-onderzoek Nicky". Hart van Nederland. 12 October 2010. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  22. ↑ "Graf geopend in zaak-Nicky Verstappen". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 24 November 2010.
  23. ↑ "Nieuws in zaak-Verstappen". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 23 May 2017.
  24. ↑ "DNA-onderzoek Verstappen uitgebreid". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 26 January 2018.
  25. ↑ "20 jaar zoektocht moordenaar Nicky Verstappen". Hart van Nederland. 22 August 2018. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  26. ↑ "Laatste poging oplossen zaak-Verstappen". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 24 May 2017.
  27. ↑ "55-jarige Jos B. gezocht voor dood Nicky Verstappen". Hart van Nederland. 22 August 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  28. ↑ "Nicky Verstappen-verdachte Jos Brech terug in Nederland". 1Limburg (in Dutch). 6 September 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
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