Court hears details of cold case murder

A new victim of Jos de G. has come forward, who claims she was pulled from her bike, dragged to a forest and raped by the now 47-year old man from Helmond in 1987. This has been announced by public prosecutor Erna Vrijhoeven at the court in Den Bosch on Thursday.

Vrijhoeven says that Jos de G.'s Modus Operandi with other rapes is the reason why his DNA was compared with the evidence discovered on the body of Nicole van den Hurk from Eindhoven, who was raped and murdered in 1995.

The 15-year old disappeared on the 6th of October when she was on her way back from her grandmother's house to a part-time job in a supermarket. Her body was found in the woods between Mierlo and Lierop almost two months later.

De G. was already connected with a case in 2000 in which he pulled a random woman off her bike, dragged her into a cane plantation and raped her several times under threat.

Since 2012, this particular case has served as strong evidence for his hand in the rape and murder of the 15-year old Van den Hurk. Since 1999, the police has been in possession of Jos de G.'s DNA.

On Thursday, this case will be brought in front of the court of justice in Den Bosch for the first time. Van de G.'s lawyer Job Knoester announced earlier on Thursday that the DNA trail found on Van den Hurk's body doesn't point directly to his client, but also to others, including her ex-boyfriend.

Van de G. was arrested in January for the murder in 1995. He claims innocence. Even though Van de G.'s lawyer doubts the strength of the DNA trail, the prosecutor says that the DNA, sperm and hair, are robust evidence. There is no proof that Van den Hurk was ever in personal contact with Jos de G., leaving questions to be answered.

The police knows that the suspect left his ex-girlfriend's home distressed after a fight on the 5th of October 1995, several hours before Van den Hurk's disappearance.