Woman facing 19 years in prison for killing boyfriend with poison

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has recommended a 19-year prison sentence against Yvon K., a 64-year-old Tilburg woman suspected of killing her partner. The victim, a 65-year-old supermarket owner named Chris Grinwis, died to the presence of a high concentration of a drug used for euthanasia, which was found in his blood.

K. is suspected of poisoning Grinwis, who died during the evening of December 8, 2020, or the early morning hours the following day. He died in his home on Dorpsstraat in Halsteren, Noord-Brabant.

The same euthanasia medication that killed Grinwis was found in K.’s home, investigators claimed. The woman was a consultant for Nederlandse Vereniging voor een Vrijwillig Levenseinde, a national association advocating for people who want to voluntarily end their lives. She was arrested in October 2021 and spent eleven months in pre-trial detention.

On the first day of the hearing, it was revealed that the private therapist started a relationship with the widower in May 2020, on the day of his wife’s funeral. Two months before his death, Grinwis had amended his will to make his girlfriend the sole beneficiary of all of his assets.

According to the Public Prosecution Service, the deadly substance was found in a wine glass and in the remnants of a cherry yogurt dessert. In addition, other substances were found in the victim’s body. The suspect’s iPad included a search history of those substances, with the searches having happened before the man’s death, the OM said.

During the trial, K. wore a wig to remain unrecognizable. She has denied all wrongdoing. “I’ve been in a nightmare for three years,” she said. “I’m on a rollercoaster. I’m completely shattered. We were very much in love with each other. My life is now completely destroyed. I didn’t kill him.”

A crowded courtroom was shown a photo that K. took of a sleeping Grinwis on the evening leading up to his death, but before she went home. K. sent that photo, which also shows the wine glass, to her daughter. The next day he was found dead in exactly the same position, the Public Prosecution Service said.

The prosecutor in the case quoted extensively from WhatsApp messages that K. sent to her daughter and friends. Her “tumultuous relationship” had its ups and downs, he said. The Public Prosecution Service counted 31 separate arguments during the relationship of more than six months.

Money was the motive for the murder, the prosecutor said. “Money is everything to her.” Some 227,000 euros in cash was found in a safe she had rented. She also got Grinwis to finance the renovation of her home, and drove a car valued at 50,000 euros which the victim supposedly gave her as a gift.

The trial will continue on Monday.