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Brother’s Desperate Act Unlocks Cold Case of Sister’s 1995 Murder
Eindhoven, Netherlands – A chilling Facebook post in 2011 reignited a 16-year-old cold case, ultimately leading to the conviction of a man for the rape of Nicole van den Hurk, whose brutal murder had haunted the Netherlands for decades. The post, from Nicole’s step-brother Andy van den Hurk, declared: “I will be arrested today [for] the murder of my sister, I confessed.”
Nicole, then 15, vanished on March 11, 1995, while cycling to work at a shopping center in Eindhoven. Her bike and bag were found that night, and a month later, her body was discovered in nearby woodland.
She had been sexually assaulted and viciously stabbed. Despite a nationwide outpouring of grief and extensive search efforts, the investigation went cold, and no one was ever convicted.
The case gripped the nation, dominating headlines and drawing thousands to Nicole’s funeral. In February 1996, investigators believed they had a breakthrough when a family acquaintance, arrested for drug trafficking, claimed he was coerced into heroin smuggling by those responsible for Nicole’s death. However, authorities dismissed his claims, and the case stalled.
Years passed, and public memory of Nicole’s murder began to fade. A cold case review in 2004 yielded no new leads.
Frustrated by the lack of progress, Andy van den Hurk, then living in the UK, took a drastic step. He confessed to Nicole’s murder, hoping to force authorities to exhume her body for DNA analysis.
He was detained by British authorities and transferred to the Netherlands, only to be released five days later when no evidence connected him to the crime.
Andy later retracted his confession, explaining, “I wanted to get [Nicole] exhumed and get DNA off her. I kind of set myself up and it could have gone horribly wrong.
She is my sister. I miss her every day.”
His audacious plan, against all odds, worked. In September 2011, renewed attention on the case led authorities to exhume Nicole’s remains. DNA analysis revealed genetic material from two males – her then-boyfriend and an unidentified second person.
The mystery DNA belonged to Jos de G, a 46-year-old former psychiatric patient with a history of rape convictions. One of his previous offenses bore a striking resemblance to Nicole’s case, involving an attack on a young woman cycling in a neighboring town, assaulting her with a knife.
In April 2014, prosecutors charged de G with Nicole’s rape and murder. However, his legal team argued that the semen found on Nicole and her clothing could have resulted from a consensual sexual encounter.
The murder charge was downgraded to manslaughter. After two years of legal proceedings, de G was acquitted of manslaughter but received a five-year sentence for rape.
The Dutch Supreme Court confirmed his sentence in June 2020.