In 1995, fifteen-year-old Nicole van den Hurk left her grandmother’s house for work on her bicycle. She never arrived, and later that day, her bike was found in a nearby river

In 1995, fifteen-year-old Nicole van den Hurk left her grandmother’s house for work on her bicycle. She never arrived, and later that day, her bike was found in a nearby river.

Searchers were mobilized, and her backpack was recovered around a week later. Eventually, her body was recovered near a road some distance away. The cause of death was stabbing. The police reviewed hundreds of leads, but none panned out. These included a man who called the police saying he could identify the killer but then abruptly hung up. The call could not be traced.

Despite the leads and a reward for information, the case went cold.

But Nicole’s brother Andy never gave up hope. Andy had been a suspect early on in the case, but had been cleared.

However, in 2012, he was arrested again. In a Facebook post, he confessed to having committed the murder. Other users reported this to the authorities, and, before long, he was arrested and extradited to The Netherlands.

He was held for only five days. He emerged a free man, proclaiming his innocence. The police said the confession was all they had against him.

What happened? As it turns out, the police had never tested the body for DNA at the scene. Andy said he had been frustrated by the lack of progress in the investigation, so he confessed in order for Nicole’s body to be exhumed and tested for DNA.

Sure enough, they found a man’s DNA on the body. And it did not match Andy.

In January 2014, police arrested a 46-year-old man with prior rape conviction(s) in connection with the case. His DNA matched the sample from Nicole. The man’s former girlfriend admitted that he had gone out the afternoon and evening of the murder, after the two of them had a fight.

After a lengthy trial, he was eventually convicted. The suspect pleaded insanity and was sentenced to prison for the lesser crime of rape.

By lying to the police, Andy brought justice for his murdered sister.

I can’t think of a better crime than that.

EDIT: Jeez Louise, guys! 7K upvotes and 18 shares in 12 hours! Thank you all so much!

I would like to address some of the comments I have had:

To everyone who has offered to help translate from Dutch, Thank you.

Some have pointed out that it was not technically a crime to lie to the police in the Netherlands, and in any case, the lie took place in Britain which would complicate things further. I’m looking for other examples of this same event from around the world.

There was also the confusion over the mixture of DNA that was found. The convicted, known only as ‘Jos. De G.’ Was among the mixture, and since Nicole was only 15, this could not have come from consensual contact. But other reports have indicated an unknown person(s), her boyfriend, an additional friend, or even Andy as possible other contributors. I read one source that alleged there was cross contamination in the sample, and that’s something I’m searching for now.

Here is a photo of Andy van den Hurk, from his Twitter. The resemblance is clear.

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