Police search Groningen home for murdered man's head, hands

By Janene Pieters on November 21, 2017 - 09:15
Forensic investigators at a crime scene
Forensic investigators at a crime scene. Photo: Politie

The police are performing a large investigation in a home on Doornbosheerd in the Groningen neighborhood of Beijum, where they believe Halil Erol was murdered in 2010. Investigators are searching for the murdered man's head and hands, and other trace evidence, Dagblad van het Noorden reports.

A 39-year-old woman from Groningen was . She lived in the Doornbosheerd home at the time of the murder. The police are also searching the garden of the home. "We are keeping all options open", police spokesperson Thijs van Hemmen said to the newspaper. 

The investigation is expected to take several days. The current residents of the home are staying elsewhere while the police are busy in their home. According to the newspaper, their furniture is being removed piece by piece while forensic investigators meticulously examine the house.

Erol from Steenwijk was last seen alive in February 2010, when he went to his ex-wife's house to pick up a laptop one of his young daughters borrowed from him. Four months after his disappearance, his arms - without hands - and legs were found just outside Steenwijk. In January 2013 his torso was found in a nature reserve in Wanneperveen. 

"You can't imagine that such a horrific murder was committed here", a resident of Doornbosheerd said to DVHN. "I was scared senseless when I saw the crime scene bus", another neighbor said. One of the ladies knows the arrested woman. "A Turkish single mother", she said to the newspaper, adding that the woman left the area in 2010. "My daughter was friends with the eldest son. He was suddenly gone." A few yeas later, they returned. "The son suddenly came back to school." 

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