Death of Nicky Verstappen

On Saturday, 8 August 1998, Verstappen and 36 other children took the bus from Heibloem to Brunssum to take part in a children's summer camp being held on the De Heikop camping grounds on the Brunssummerheide. Verstappen was last seen alive around 5:30 a.m. on 10 August by a tentmate; later that morning, he was no longer in his sleeping bag; only his shoes were still in the tent.[5] On 11 August, police and volunteers conducted a search for the boy; at 9 p.m., his body, naked from the waist up, was found in a pine grove on the Schinvelderweg in Landgraaf, 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) from the camp.[6][7] The body showed signs of possible sexual abuse, but the post-mortem did not determine the cause of death, and an initial examination for foreign DNA yielded nothing. A tissue and cigarette with human DNA were found near where the body was discovered; from this DNA a complete profile was compiled.[6]

Joos Barten, the founder of the camp Verstappen disappeared from, was questioned extensively by police in the days following. A former headmaster of the local primary school in Heibloem, Barten had had convictions for child sexual abuse and admitted to being near the tent Verstappen slept in at 6 a.m. on 10 August. During the search for Verstappen, he pointed several times in the direction where the body was eventually discovered. A 15-year-old girl who had attended the teenagers' camp on De Heikop a few days earlier suspected that she had been sexually abused by Barten in her sleep. None of the camp staff were officially held as suspects.[6]

A reward of 25,000 guilders was offered by the Openbaar Ministerie in Maastricht for information on the identity of the perpetrator; this offer was doubled in 1999 with money raised by crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, who became a spokesperson for Verstappen's family.[8] Following a lack of leads, the investigation team was dissolved in November 1998, with a new team of investigators taking over the case between November 2000 and July 2001.[6][9] Between 2001 and 2007, a sex offender from Kerkrade was in and out of police custody while a number of witnesses claimed to have seen him in and around the camp around 10 August 1998; the sex offender died in August 2007. The case has also been linked to German serial killer Martin Ney, who killed three boys between 1992 and 2001.[6]

Seven or eight letters written by an anonymous author suggesting they had killed Verstappen were found on a monument for the boy on the Brunssummerheide between 2005 and July 2006. In January 2007, a 36-year-old man from Landgraaf was arrested on suspicion of having written the letters.[10][11] He was released two weeks later,[12] before being re-arrested in December for vandalising the monument.[13] One month later, he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for the vandalism.[14][15] The monument was vandalised again in April 2008,[16] August 2013[17][18] and April 2019.[19]

The trial began on 28 September 2020 and lasted three weeks. Brech pleaded not guilty on all of the accusations. In a pre-recorded video message played in court, Brech said that on 11 August 1998—hours before Verstappen's body was found by the search party—he was walking close to the edge of a forest when he "saw something in the distance" and went to look out of curiosity, finding the body. He said that his DNA was found on the body because he had checked for signs of life, brushed leaves off the body and then left without any other action because of his previous convictions.[5][33] In total, 27 traces of Brech's DNA had been found on the body, including on the boy's underwear; Brech said he had "no idea" how his DNA ended up on the underwear.[34] The prosecution contested Brech's assertions, referencing a photograph taken of the location of where the body was found in a pine grove and a screenshot from a video of the location Brech said he was standing when he "saw something". According to the prosecution, it would not have been possible for Brech to have seen Verstappen's body lying behind a chain-link fence and obscured from view by trees. Brech's lawyer argued that Brech had said in his video message that he "saw something"—not clarifying whether it was the body—from where he was standing that drew his attention to the pine grove.[35] A forensic pathologist who had reviewed the post-mortem could not ascertain whether the injury to Verstappen's body was caused by sexual abuse, due to the poor quality of the photographs and the fact that the pathologist who conducted the post-mortem had since died.[36]

The prosecution deemed Brech's assertions to be "wafer-thin and unbelievable", saying that they believed him to be guilty of the kidnapping, sexual abuse and aggravated manslaughter of Verstappen, and that although the medical cause of death was not determined, the boy's death could not have been the result of anything other than a criminal act, as he was healthy and had no genetic disorder. According to them, evidence at the crime scene indicated Verstappen died at the same location his body was found.[37] On 8 October, the prosecution requested a sentence of 15 years' imprisonment and compulsory treatment (or 18 years' imprisonment if the court decided not to impose compulsory treatment) for Brech for the kidnapping, sexual abuse and manslaughter of Verstappen, as well as for possession of child pornography.[38] On 20 November, the court found Brech guilty of kidnapping and sexually abusing Verstappen, saying the multiple traces of Brech's DNA found on Verstappen's body, including on the boy's underwear, indicated prolonged physical contact of a sexual nature that Verstappen could not possibly have consented to. The court cited the manner of Brech's previous offences against children, which involved him restraining his victims by placing his hand over their mouths, and while not ruling out the possibility that Brech intentionally suffocated and killed Verstappen, the court took into account the possibility that the boy died accidentally as Brech attempted to restrain him. Brech was therefore acquitted of manslaughter, though the court maintained that Verstappen's death was the result of Brech's actions. Brech was given a 12-year prison sentence for the kidnapping and sexual abuse of Verstappen, as well as a six-month sentence for possession of child pornography. Brech's lawyer announced that the verdict would be appealed.[4]

In 2003, folk band Rowwen Hèze released a song about the case, titled "Vlinder" (transl. Butterfly). Author Simon Vuyk published a book about the case titled De mysterieuze dood van Nicky Verstappen (transl. The mysterious death of Nicky Verstappen) in 2010.[6]

• Cold case
• Killing of Nicole van den Hurk
• List of solved missing persons cases