Andy van den Hurk took a harmful gamble when he confessed to killing his step-sister Nicole in 1995 – however he did not do it. His plan was to drive police to exhume her physique for DNA testing within the Netherlands chilly case.
Andy van den Hurk informed police he had killed his sister (Picture: undefined)
On March 11 2011, Andy van den Hurk printed a disturbing admission on his Fb web page: “I might be arrested as we speak [for] the homicide of my sister, I confessed.”
Sixteen years earlier than, his cherished step-sister Nicole, 15, had disappeared while biking to her office at an area purchasing centre in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Nevertheless, she by no means turned up for her shift. That night, police found her rucksack and bicycle within the neighborhood.
A month afterwards, her physique was found assaulted and viciously stabbed with a knife within the neighbouring woodland. No convictions have been secured and, as time handed, the investigation stalled.
Van den Hurk’s homicide grew to become a nationwide phenomenon within the Netherlands. Tons of participated within the seek for her and 1000’s attended her funeral on November 20 1995, studies the Mirror.
Developments within the case steadily dominated nationwide headlines.
In February 1996, police believed that they had cracked the case when an acquaintance of the van den Hurk household was arrested for drug trafficking.
He maintained he had been coerced into smuggling heroin by the boys accountable for {the teenager}’s killing. Nevertheless, the police dismissed his account and the investigation stagnated.
As time handed, Nicole’s homicide pale from public consciousness. Detectives moved onto different instances.
Those that remained dedicated relaunched a chilly case evaluate in 2004, however no contemporary proof emerged.
Observing this and exasperated, Andy resolved to intervene. By then residing within the UK, he admitted to the homicide and was detained by British police, who extradited him to the Netherlands.
Nicole van den Hurk was 15 when she was murdered (Picture: Wiki Commons)
5 days afterwards, he was freed as no further proof connecting him to the offence might be found.
He subsequently retracted his confession, and defined: “I needed to get [Nicole] exhumed and get DNA off her. I form of set myself up and it may have gone horribly unsuitable.
“She is my sister. I miss her day by day.”
Remarkably, Andy’s audacious technique succeeded. In September 2011, with contemporary consideration on the unsolved case, police exhumed Nicole’s physique and analysed the DNA.
They found traces belonging to 2 males – her boyfriend on the time and one other that could not be recognized.
This was the DNA of a 46-year-old man generally known as Jos de G, a former psychiatric affected person and convicted rapist.
One in every of his three earlier convictions associated to a case strikingly just like Nicole’s. De G had beforehand attacked a younger lady biking in a neighbouring city and raped her at knifepoint.
In April 2014, prices for the rape and homicide of Nicole have been filed towards de G. Nevertheless, the defence argued that the semen, belonging to de G, found on Nicole and her coat may have resulted from a consensual encounter.
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De G’s prices have been downgraded to manslaughter, however even then – and following two years in courtroom – he was acquitted and sentenced to simply 5 years for rape.
His sentence was confirmed by the Dutch Supreme Court docket in June 2020.
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