Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
One of the most exciting criminal cases in the Netherlands took place in the Brunssummerheide, of all places. This 600-hectare nature reserve in the Dutch province of Limburg, between the towns of Brunssum, Heerlen, and Landgraaf, is a wonderful recreational area that is known far beyond the country’s borders. For this reason, it is a popular destination for day trips and vacations, where the body of 11-year-old Nicky Verstappen was found in 1998. He was at summer camp when he disappeared from there on August 10, 1998. A large-scale search operation was immediately launched involving the police and army, as well as helicopters and dogs, which discovered the boy’s body near the pine forest the next day. Nicky Verstappen had been sexually abused before his death. According to the autopsy, the perpetrator had covered his mouth during the rape, causing Nicky to suffocate. Who was capable of such a heinous act? For over 20 years, the police were completely in the dark as to who had abducted, raped, and killed Nicky from the holiday camp. Shortly before the statute of limitations was about to expire in 2018, the police made a final attempt to catch Nicky’s killer. To this end, a mass DNA test was carried out, in which 21,000 men from the region voluntarily participated and provided DNA samples, and a match was indeed found. This led to 58-year-old Joseph Theresia Johannes “Jos” Brech. A total of 27 traces on the child’s clothing and body matched his DNA. Jos Brech had been reported missing by his family after voluntarily submitting the DNA sample. He was finally arrested in a remote area of Barcelona. Jos Brech had already sexually assaulted two boys in 1985, covering their mouths as he did so. He had also been seen by witnesses at the location where the body was found at the time in question. In the summer of 2018, a sensational circumstantial evidence trial against Jos Brech took place at the Maastricht Criminal Court, where he vehemently denied having anything to do with Nicky’s death. He had found Nicky lying in the Brunssummerheide that day. He wanted to see if the boy was still alive and had therefore turned him over to feel his pulse. But when he realized that he was dead, he fled because, as a sex offender, he knew the police would not believe him. Due to the overwhelming evidence, Jos Brech was sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in prison for sexual abuse resulting in death and for possession of child pornography. Jos Brech’s defense appealed the verdict, which they should have refrained from doing. In the second instance, Jos Brech was also found guilty by the Court of Appeal in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Jos Brech’s sentence was increased due to the particular severity of his guilt. To this day, a memorial in the eastern part of the Brunssummerheide commemorates Nicky Verstappen, who was killed there.
