The Public Prosecution Service in Northern Netherlands has demanded life imprisonment for a 51-year-old man from Klazienaveen. He is suspected of committing a double murder on January 16, 2024, of a 44-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man in Weiteveen. He is also suspected of possessing illegal weapons from September 1, 2022, to January 16, 2024.
The double murder, in the eyes of the Public Prosecution Service, has its origins in a long-standing conflict, which began after the suspect sold his parental home to the victims. The new residents complained shortly after the purchase about defects in that house. This quickly led to a quarrel, in which a healthy dialogue proved impossible. “Nothing was aimed at restoration, but solely at proving ones own correctness, digging oneself in, equipped with surveillance cameras on both properties,” says the prosecutor.
Harassment threats
After selling his parental home, the suspect continued to use a shed next to the victims house. The harassment and threats continued, and reports followed each other in rapid succession to the police. Both sides lived under the impression that nothing was being done. In a recently published report, the police itself concluded that the focus of the conflict was always on isolated incidents and insufficiently on the pattern.
Confrontation
Two days before the murder, another confrontation occurred between the later victims, the suspect, and the suspects partner. The prosecutor noted provocative behavior from the suspect and his partner. The suspect would have received a sort of headbutt and was also threatened by the later male victim. The latter was taken away by the police after the incident. Ultimately, he was released the next day, without any prosecutorial decision having been made at that moment.
Cold reckoning
Around the victims home and the suspects shed stood a large number of cameras. Involved parties also regularly filmed each other. Despite the fact that on the fateful January 16, 2024, the cameras at the suspects shed were almost all turned off by the suspect, both murders were captured on camera. After the suspect turned off the cameras, he saw the 44-year-old woman driving away. He could tell from her driving direction that she was taking her daughter to school and would probably return afterward. He went to his car and trapped the woman upon her return. While she filmed the trapping from her car, the suspect approached her vehicle. Upon arrival, he shot the woman dead with multiple shots. It was a cold reckoning that was filmed by the victim herself.
Slaughter
Afterward, the suspect drove his car at high speed onto the property where the woman and her partner lived. He called for the 38-year-old man but saw that their 12-year-old son opened the door. The suspect said in the doorway that his mother had had an accident. He then entered the home and ultimately pushed the boy aside. Inside the house, according to the Public Prosecution Service, he walked to the bedroom where the 38-year-old father of the boy was sleeping. With his weapon, the suspect shot at him, right through the blanket.
The victim fled from the bed, slipped, and was then stabbed multiple times in the back by the suspect. All of this happened in front of the 12-year-old son, who tried to stop the suspect with a kitchen knife. However, the knife in the boys hand just broke off.
Footage shows that the injured father of the boy fled outside while the suspect at that moment retrieved an even larger firearm from his car. With that weapon, he followed the blood trail left by the victim, “like a hunter stalking his prey.” Ultimately, the suspect shot at him multiple times at close range, including once in the head, while the male victim had already ended up for dead in a ditch or dry ditch in his attempt to flee. Afterward, the suspect stabbed him multiple times with a large knife and finally struck him on the head ten times with the stock of the firearm. “A slaughter,” says the prosecutor in his indictment. Shortly after, the suspect called 112 and recorded a live Facebook video.
Planned approach
According to the prosecutor, there is evidence of taking two lives with premeditation. Indeed, the suspect wrote a sort of farewell letter before he proceeded with his act. He also turned off almost all the cameras around his shed and studied beforehand how the 44-year-old woman drove away. When she returned, and he trapped her, he had two loaded handguns and extra ammunition with him. After shooting her dead, he deliberately sought out the womans partner. He did this first inside and later, after retrieving another weapon from the car, outside. This complex of factors indicates a planned approach by the suspect.
PBC investigation
The Pieter Baan Centre conducted extensive research into the suspects personality. Based on that investigation, the prosecutor assumes that the suspects actions are entirely attributable to him and that the disorders identified in him had no influence on his actions. In his view, there is no question of diminished accountability.
It concerns two people whose lives have been cut short by a suspect who does not take responsibility. “It all happens to him, it befalls him,” the prosecutor states. “But he does not say, ‘I did this.’ Regret is far from present towards the victims. (…) The suspect chokes on his own truth, in his own conviction of not wanting to yield and has been calculating in his actions. This has resulted in two horrific murders.”
The court in Assen will announce when it will rule in this case after the session.