Body found in Hoorn confirmed to be pregnant Univ. Amsterdam student

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has confirmed that the human remains found on Tuesday in Hoorn belong to 22-year-old Sumanta Bansi, who went missing in 2018. The remains were discovered after a surprise confession from Manodj B., the woman's convicted killer.

Bansi, a biomedical sciences student at the University of Amsterdam, disappeared in February 2018. She had moved to the Netherlands from Suriname to study and was living with B. and his family in Hoorn when she went missing. She and the married B. began an affair unbeknownst to his family. Before she went missing, Bansi learned that she had become pregnant by B. for the second time in their relationship and was determined to keep the baby.

The student's disappearance went unacknowledged by the university or her job until her family, assisted by a Hindu priest, reported her missing. The now 42-year-old B. was convicted of killing Bansi and disposing of her body and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Although the body was not found, his conviction was based in part on conversations where he stated he killed Bansi with a knife.

Until Tuesday, B. never admitted to the murder, maintaining a "no body, no conviction" stance, according to De Telegraaf. The newspaper reports he also wanted to protect his father, who was a suspect in the case. However, during a Tuesday morning courtroom session, his lawyer Theo Hiddema was joined by De Telegraaf in pressing the man to reveal the location of Bansi's body, in order to give closure to her family.

He pointed authorities to a business park in Hoorn, where investigators found human remains. The Netherlands Forensic Institute later determined the remains indeed belonged to Bansi.

A fundraiser is currently underway on Doneeractie to return Bansi's remains to her family in Suriname.