Two Missing Persons Identified After Years Through Discovery of Bone Remains

Gebied: Hargen / Den Haag

Thanks to reports of discovered bone remains, two recent DNA matches were made with long-term missing persons. A bone was found on the beach of Schoorl belonging to a Belgian man missing for seven years. About seventy nautical miles above Schiermonnikoog, a skull of a resident from The Hague missing for fifteen months was found. The police use these examples to emphasize the importance of reporting possible human remains.

Belgian Man

A doctor walking on the beach of Schoorl in April recognized a femur bone in the lagoon of Hargen as human material. She secured the material and alerted the police, who confirmed after investigation that it was human remains.
Subsequently, the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) established a DNA profile based on the material. This was compared with DNA profiles from the international DNA database I-Familia of Interpol. This resulted in a match with a Belgian man who had been missing for seven years. The bone has since been taken by a funeral director to the residence of the relatives of this man.

Missing Person from The Hague

Fishermen from Urk retrieved a human skull at sea around July 2025 about 70 nautical miles above Schiermonnikoog. They carefully photographed the skull and handed it over on land to the Foundation Identity Sought (https://www.sig-urk.com/). Through this foundation, the human material reached the Maritime Police Team of the National Unit. Based on the DNA profile, the material was linked to someone from The Hague who had been missing for quite some time.

Found Bone Remains? Report It!

The police urge fishermen who find bone remains that could be human to hand them over to the police. This also applies to bone remains found by walkers in dunes or forests. If it indeed concerns human remains, the police can instruct the Netherlands Forensic Institute to secure cellular material and generate a DNA profile for inclusion in the Missing Persons DNA database.

DNA Database

The Dutch Missing Persons DNA database stores DNA profiles of unidentified persons, missing persons, and/or family members of missing persons. Family members of someone missing (at sea) can voluntarily provide DNA to the police, so that when a body or parts are found, a match can be checked immediately. Cooperation with INTERPOL also enables international searches.

For more information about this database, see https://dnadatabank.forensischinstituut.nl/dna-databanken/dna-databank-vermiste-personen

If you are a blood relative of a long-term missing person and DNA has not been previously collected from a relative, please register via coldcase@politie.nl. The police previously made a video appeal during the miss-you-May theme month to encourage voluntary DNA donation.

Note to media: the relatives have indicated they do not wish to be contacted by the media. However, they have expressed relief that their search for their missing relative has come to an end.