If necessary, they will widen

Detective Hugo van Klaveren stands next to the recently cleared corner of a juicy pasture. He points to the pit and says, "The top layer of the soil was plowed once, and underneath you see white sand, we did not find any disturbance there.That means, as our archaeologist tells us, assures, that this has never been searched.This place can not tell us anything about the disappearance of Willeke Dost. "

What could be better than forcing a breakthrough on this foggy Monday of November in a disappearing dating shop 26 years old located in the countryside of Drenthe. This was not allowed. Police searched Monday a plot of about 240 square meters. In vain. Van Klaveren, Area Head of the Regional Criminal Investigation Department in the north of the Netherlands, has no choice but to call witnesses. "Because we want to solve this problem as much as everyone else."

Foster Family

The result is a bitter disappointment for those who hoped that the case of 1992 could be resolved with the discovery of a mortal remains. In January of this year, fifteen-year-old Willeke Dost disappeared from the village of Koekange without leaving a trace. The girl, who had lost both her parents in a road accident, had been living for five years with a host family on a farm in Koekanger Dwarsdijk

The excavation campaign followed the citizen's initiative two men from Koekange and Emmen. They thought "almost certainly" know that in the pasture corner behind the homestead family farm, particularly interesting discoveries could be made. "I slept well last night because I'm pretty sure of my belongings," said one of them, Ab Bruintjes, in the morning shortly before the search campaign. He is an independent contractor in Koekange. "I negotiate everything loose and stuck."

Bruintjes has been stuck for years. the case of Willeke Dost, who, according to him, would have treated the police "completely in error" from the beginning. "The police have always taken a leaking action, and then I ask: how is it possible if the girl did not take clothes and leave her passport and train card at home?"

In the village , stories tell the story of the foster family for years, where they have been abused, neglected and abused. would be. This is never proven. The foster father died, the foster mother and the foster brother have been detained for some time as a suspect, but were released at the time the investigation was blocked.

"Their statements are false," says Bruintjes. "After her disappearance, the adoptive mother sometimes said that Willeke could have died in the Bijlmer disaster later in the year, and she had apparently forgotten that all the victims of the Bijlmer disaster had been identified. "

No, the host family did not make the host family. "You can put a sign in the garden with the text The House of Horror ." He said that the family lived "very alone" and that the foster father "worked for the youth". "These are things that I think: how can all this be done."

Ground Radar

His comrade is even more certain of his case on Monday morning. "I know we're going to find Willeke, and maybe even more than that," says Jan Huzen of Emmen. He has been involved in the case through the intermediary of an aunt of Willeke Dost, who is waiting for clarifications.

Huzen blows with the results of an investigation with a ground radar, from which it is clear that in this corner of the pasture, "objects" are buried. He shows the papers. "You see?" At the same corner of the pasture, search dogs barked last year from the Signi Foundation, activated by a TV show.

These "concrete indications" follow earlier research by former police inspector Dick Gosewehr, who suggested 14 years ago that the most likely scenario was that Willeke would have been killed at the time. home and in the pastures. was buried. Eight years ago, the police again investigated and the farm and part of the pasture were completely upside down. No result.

Detective Hugo van Klaveren: "We have done extensive research, we have only ever taken a leaking action, of course, we have never ruled out a crime."

The two Drenthe men decided to visit the media last week. "It's the only thing the police are sensitive to." They presented the authorities with an ultimatum: if Prime Minister Rutte did not call them, they would go to great lengths. "We had the plans ready, we would cordon around the meadow with 1,000 or 1,500 men, and then dig ourselves until the police stopped us." Excavators had already been offered to men in abundance .

It was not, therefore, a civil action. the police decided to start digging. "Partly because of this attention," the available information was "re-examined" and the case-back team again spoke to the witnesses. "This reassessment and expectations of the outside world" have led the judiciary and the police to start digging, police said in a statement. For nothing The excavated sand was repaid again.