Woman arrested in Steenwijk man's 2010 murder

A 44-year-old woman from Meppel was arrested on Tuesday morning on suspicion of involvement in the murder of 34-year-old Halil Erol from Steenwijk in 2010, the police said in a statement. Erol disappeared in February 2010. Parts of his body were found later that year and in 2013. The man's head and hands have still not be found.

Earlier this year the police also arrested a 42-year-old man from Meppel and a 40-year-old woman from Haarlem, also for involvement in Erol's murder. The man is still in custody. The woman was released, but remains a suspect in this case, a police officer said in Opsporing Verzocht on Tuesday.

Erol disappeared on Saturday, 6 February 2010. On the day of his disappearance, Erol, the father of two children, spent a few hours in a home in Meppel with his ex-wife, his children and the people who lived in the home at the time. "The last contact Halil Erol would have had with his ex-wife was Saturday evening 6 February 2010", the police said on their website. He went to his ex-wife to pick up a laptop his oldest daughter had borrowed.

At around 11:00 a.m. the next morning, Erol's phone called his ex-wife. The phone was near Zevenaar, at the border crossing with Germany, at the time. The ex-wife did not answer. The police believe that someone else made this call to create the impression that he was still alive and disappeared on his own accord.

In March 2010, Erol's burnt-out car was fond in Haren. The license plates had been removed. The license plates, 16-HG-TJ, were registered on the A12, A55 and A15 later that same year, in April and May, according to the police.

On June 22nd of that year, Erol's legs and arms were found just outside Steenwijk. They were placed in a canvas bag. His torso was discovered in a similar bag in Wanneperveen in January 2013. The man's head and hands are still missing.

On Tuesday evening, the police showed photos of the bags in which Erol's body parts were found, in the hope that the public can help figure out where they came from. In 2010 the Public Prosecutor offered a reward of 15 thousand euros for information that leads to this case being solved. That reward is still available.