Mental clinic murder victim posb. mistaken for underworld boss

Police investigating the murder of mental clinic director Rob Zeekhorst believe the case is linked to another homicide three months later. Zeekhorst was shot on January 1st 2014 while out walking dogs in his neighborhood.

He was director of the GGZ InGeest clinic at the time of the killing. Detectives focused on this early in the case, to determine if a disgruntled patient or colleague was involved, but later the investigation suggested the shooter mistook the identity of the victim. A lack of progress led to police slowing down the inquest.

Now the police has possibly made a connection between Zweekhorst and a shooting in Steenbergen, Noord-Brabant in April 2014.

Zweekhorst was a husband and a father and had no criminal ties, according to the police. That is why the investigation leaned on the theory of mistaken identity, in which the shooter thought Zweekhorst to be someone else.

Rinus Moerer was killed in Steenbergen, gunned down while parking his car on the street. He had also been shot in January, not long after Zweekhorst was killed.

Though officially working as a fruit merchant, Moerer was suspected of using his business as a front for drug smuggling, the Volkskrant says.

Police are asking the assistance of the public to solve the case. They had blasted out an SMS to all mobile phones in the area at the time of Zweekhorst's murder. A reconstruction of that crime will also be shown on Opsporing Verzocht, airing Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. on NPO 1.