On the night of May 14, 2024, 44-year-old Jurjen Koopmans from Leeuwarden was drowned in the Dokkumer Ee near Leeuwarden. The 55-year-old neighbor of the victim is suspected of murdering Jurjen, preceded by threats, fraud, and burglary in his home.
According to the prosecutor, the suspect exploited a vulnerable victim for his own financial gain and ultimately, when he saw no way out, deliberately and calculatedly ended Jurjens life.
The suspect and the victim had been neighbors for some time on Bongastate in Leeuwarden. They barely spoke to each other until the burglary in the victims home and only greeted each other. After the burglary on March 30, 2024, there was more contact and it became more intense. The suspect intended for the contact to become more intense. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the suspect staged the burglary in the victims home himself. After the burglary, the suspect maintained contact with his neighbor to take money from him. He performed or had repairs done on the victims car and charged a lot of money for it. He also requested quotes for renovations to the victims home and had him pay large sums of money as an advance. The suspect continued to go further and lived off the money he extorted from his neighbor. He spent that money on alcohol and drugs to which he was addicted. Eventually, he got stuck in this and saw no way out of his problems. “He decided that he had to get rid of him. As he said, he had to find a solution,” the prosecutor said in the indictment.
On April 9, the victim reported to the police that the suspect initially helped him well after he was burglarized, but that the suspect was now trying to exploit him and threatened him with death. In response, the suspect said in a spoken WhatsApp message to the victim: “I hope that doesn’t go back to my name, because then you’re in trouble, a piece of concrete around the legs and they will never find him again.”
According to the Public Prosecution Service, this is a case of murder with premeditation. The suspect began executing his plan to take his neighbors life on May 11, 2024, by luring him several times to the Dokkumer Ee under the pretense of picking up packages. This did not succeed until the night of May 13 to 14, 2024. The suspect stated during an interrogation that he had done a reconnaissance and knew exactly how to get to the Dokkumer Ee by bike without encountering a camera on the route.
At a concrete slab in the water of the Dokkumer Ee, the suspect executed his premeditated plan. With tools he brought along, the suspect struck the victim on the head and then pulled him into the water in an unconscious state, holding him underwater until he felt that the victim was no longer alive. He then gave him a push and let him drift away. Jurjens body was found the next afternoon a little further down the Dokkumer Ee.
Experts concluded that the suspect was indeed hindered in his freedom of choice by disorders, but not to the extent that he could not make other choices and attributed the charged offenses to him to a lesser extent.
The prosecutor: “After the death, the suspect tried to avoid suspicion on himself, but to let the suspicion rest on others. He called Jurjens brother and parents and also lied to them. He allegedly wanted to help them in the search for the perpetrator who had Jurjens death on his conscience. He sent them messages, photos, and visited them at home. He misled them, just as he did with Jurjen. This only increased the impact. The safety and trust they had in the people around them have been severely damaged.”
In formulating the sentence demand, the prosecutor takes into account the seriousness of the facts, the circumstances under which they were committed, but also the suspects personality.
The prosecutor demands a prison sentence of fifteen years and TBS with compulsory treatment.