Before Eric left for America in December 2007, he left his home tidy. Everything was arranged, sold, or placed elsewhere. As if he already knew he would not return.
On his travel blog, he wrote his last message on Sunday, January 27, 2008: ‘Because I am leaving my laptop with Kevin in Monterrey, unfortunately I am no longer able to continue this travel report in the last days. I enjoyed doing it, and given the many readers and responses (during the trip I had sixty visitors per day on my weblog) so did you. Thanks everyone, and goodbye. Eric.’
Where is Eric?
After his last travel days, he was supposed to fly back to the Netherlands. But this did not happen. On the contrary; it remained silent. Friends and acquaintances began to worry and reported it to the police. A search investigation was started to find out where Eric was staying. Unfortunately, despite the police efforts, there was no result. Also, the handling of the cold case seven years later yielded nothing. Eric remained missing since the end of January 2008.
Golden tip from Stichting Coldcasezaken
Until this year. In January, Sander Meyer, director of Stichting Coldcasezaken, contacted the Police Cold Cases Team. He and his team had discovered a strong connection with a man who was found lifeless in New York City in February 2008.
Sander Meyer about the work of Stichting Coldcasezaken: ‘The beauty of our work at Stichting Coldcasezaken is that we make cases that sometimes lie dormant for years visible again. Together with my team I investigate cold cases and we see how attention and perseverance yield real solutions, such as in this disappearance from 2008.’
The Cold Cases Team contacted the American authorities. Two weeks later, the dactyloscopic comparison, in which the unique skin patterns of hands are compared, confirmed that it was indeed Eric. Thanks to the golden tip from Stichting Coldcasezaken, the uncertainty about Eric’s fate has ended.
Case closed after nearly 20 years
Eric never took the return flight. After his trip through America, he ended his life. Thanks to the recent identification of the deceased man in America, the police close the file after almost 20 years. Relatives can now, after years, give a place to the loss of Eric.