Nothing found in search for girl missing since 1992
Nothing was found in the search for Willeke Dost, a then 15-year-old girl who disappeared from her foster parents' farm in Koekange in 1992. On Monday the police searched and dug in two places in the vicinity of the farm, but found nothing.
The search was done with the help of "multiple excavation experts" in two locations on a plot in Koekange. According to the police, the ground at the two locations is undisturbed and there is no reason to believe that anyone ever dug there before. "After the search, the police are certain that this searched place has no relation to her disappearance", the police said in a statement.
"For the police and the people around her, it is still completely unclear what happened to [Willeke]", the police said. The investigation does not end here. The cold case team still calls on anyone with information about Willeke's disappearance to come forward. "A lot of information has already been shared with the police, but we can imagine that you still have a tip", the Drenthe police said on Twitter.
The search on Monday was launched after a citizen's initiative focused attention on this cold case last week. The initiators had announced that they would go digging in Koekange themselves if the police did not act. One of them is very disappointed that nothing was found. "But it is now clear that Willeke is not there", Ab Bruintjes said, according to NOS. "If we had not dug, we would never have known. It would have been a great day for Willeke's relatives if we had found her remains."
The other initiator, Jan Huzen, does not yet believe the police's conclusion, according to the broadcaster. "I see a disturbance here", he said referring to radar images. "An object starts to appear around 1.85 meters deep. And the police dug 60 centimeters away with a huge crane and said, well we think it's okay." He doesn't trust the police and wants to go back to the site with sniffer dogs.
