Man confesses to beheading his mother with axe; Arrested with head in car
Jesse R., a 31-year-old man from Diemen, has confessed to beheading his mother with an axe shortly before Easter. The gruesome killing took place at her home on Molenstraat in Hellevoetsluis, Brabants Dagblad reported. R. was arrested shortly afterward on the A4 highway with her severed head in a bag on the passenger seat. “It’s horrible what I’ve done,” he said.
The victim, Alia, 63, was found dead in her home by her partner, who saw her son, Jesse R., running away from the scene and immediately called the police. Officers stopped R. shortly afterward on the A4 near Schiedam, driving his mother’s Ford Ka. Inside the car, police discovered an Ikea bag containing Alia’s severed head and the axe used in the killing.
R. was not present at Monday’s preliminary court hearing but has admitted to the killing. During the hearing, the public prosecutor stated that R. was likely in a psychotic state when he committed the act.
Outside court, R.’s attorney, Job Knoester, shared details from private conversations with his client. “It’s horrible what happened,” R. told Knoester, according to Brabants Dagblad. “And it’s horrible what I’ve done.” According to Knoester, R. only began to grasp the gravity of his actions during their first meeting. “The first thing I asked was: How are you doing? Jesse replied: ‘It’s horrible what I’ve done.’”
R. had been in contact with mental health services prior to the killing. He had posted on social media about his bipolar disorder and previous psychosis treatment. Knoester said R. was in touch with a specialized psychiatric nurse shortly before the killing, who is now being interviewed by police to clarify R.’s mental state at the time.
“He’s not just the perpetrator, he’s also a bereaved son,” Knoester told Brabants Dagblad. “He has to live with this. He’s receiving help on the psychiatric ward of the detention center in Scheveningen. When I try to imagine what he must be feeling, I get chills.”
Following his arrest, the examining magistrate placed R. on the waiting list for observation at the Pieter Baan Centrum, the justice system’s forensic psychiatric clinic, expediting his mental health evaluation.
R. had been visiting his mother during the week of the killing. A source told Brabants Dagblad that Alia had stocked up on groceries, expecting him to stay for the entire Easter weekend.
Knoester emphasized that the main legal question will be to what extent R. can be held responsible for the killing. “What was going on with Jesse in the period before the alleged act? I assume he was psychotic. People in a psychosis can be in their own world, experiencing things others cannot see, feel, or hear. That can make them very afraid and lead to actions we don’t understand.”
Knoester also called for an investigation into the mental health care R. received, including scrutiny by the Dutch Health and Youth Care Inspectorate. “Since the new mental health law, fewer people are institutionalized and more are treated at home,” he told Brabants Dagblad. “There’s too little attention paid to the risk this poses to others.”
