Woman held in boyfriend’s slaying made it look like a suicidal overdose, prosecutors say

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) suspects 26-year-old Esmee D. from Assen of murdering her partner. According to the prosecution, she allegedly killed her 34-year-old boyfriend by giving him an overdose of MDMA and then wrote a goodbye message on the victim’s phone to make it look like suicide.

D. was not present at the first preliminary hearing in Assen on Tuesday. She denies murdering her boyfriend, her attorney said on her behalf.

Ruben was found dead in his home on Zuidenveld street in Assen in January. Initially, his death was believed to be from natural causes, but police remained cautious and continued investigating, leading to D.’s arrest on July 10. According to the OM, Ruben is believed to have died five days before his body was discovered on January 20.

D. is accused of administering toxic substances to her boyfriend, specifically a combination of MDMA and the designer drug flubromazepam.

“She then tried to fool everyone with a suicide scenario,” the prosecutor said in court, in the presence of many of the victim’s relatives. D. told police that she found Ruben’s phone herself, with a goodbye message on it, which police have stated was written on January 15. D. also told police that this was the last day she saw Ruben.

Police observed that the suspect displayed no emotion and quickly noticed that the victim’s phone contained no recent WhatsApp messages. D. claimed she rarely sent messages, but the investigation proved otherwise. On January 20, she allegedly deleted 2,974 messages from the previous six months.

On January 22, the suspect’s mother handed another phone to police, which she had found with her daughter while they were caring for some rabbits. This phone also contained a goodbye message: “Dear Esmee, I feel saddened by what I am about to do to you. I love you all.” Police state that this message was written the same day, two days after Ruben’s body was found. D. was reportedly the only person who knew the access code to this old phone.

Investigation of D.’s phone led police to a drug dealer and an intermediary in Enschede, both of whom admitted selling the drugs to D. She reportedly withdrew 90 euros and traveled to Enschede on January 15, a claim D. denies.

The trial will resume on January 8.