Two more Dutch arrests in Belgian plumber's murder

Dutch police detained two more suspects this week in the murder Belgian plumber Johan van der Heyden, whose remains were found in a mixing bucket filled with hardened concrete. Authorities picked up a 42-year-old woman from Bergen op Zoom on Tuesday morning, and a Middelburg man, 23, two days later.

The remains were found in the Scheldt-Rijn canal in the Noord-Brabant village of Nieuw-Vossemeer in January. A chainsaw was found in March which officers said was linked to the crime.

Police from the Netherlands and Belgium have made eight arrests in total since Van der Heyden, 57, went missing after leaving his home in Lint, Belgium last June. The latest suspects were taken into custody on suspicion of "theft by force, extortion, deliberate deprivation of liberty and hostage-taking," Dutch authorities said.

Back in January, police said they believed the perpetrators were trying to extort or otherwise collect a ransom from the plumber, whom they may have thought was wealthy. Police thought he was kept hostage in his own van for a lengthy period of time before he was killed, possibly because the offenders wanted to cover their tracks when they discovered he was not rich at all.

Aside from the new detentions, two 40-year-old women and a 31-year-old man were still behind bars.