Suspect's car found in investigation into Syrian woman's murder in Almere
Update at 14:28 - article updated with information about the suspect's car being found
The police found the car of Omar Alhamad, the 34-year-old Syrian man wanted for killing his 24-year-old wife, Boushra, in Almere last month. The car was found in eastern Amersfoort on Wednesday after a tip from someone that the gray Peugeot 307 SW station wagon had been parked there for some time. The man himself is still at large.
Boushra and Alhamad were separated for some time, but were still married and had five children together. The young woman was living in Almere. She disappeared from there on Thursday, August 7. Her body was found a week later. The police believe Alhamad abducted and killed her and then disappeared in his gray Peugeot.
The car has now been found in a parking lot at De Dynamo. The police are looking for anyone who knows when the car was parked there, where it came from, and whether there has been any suspicious activity around the car. Anyone with information about the suspect’s whereabouts is also urged to come forward.
On Tuesday evening, the police discussed the case on the investigation program Opsporing Verzocht. That resulted in at least 15 tips. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) offered a reward of €10,000 for information leading to the man’s arrest.
According to the police, Boushra still had contact with Alhamad despite being separated. People who knew the young mother told investigators that she had plans to meet him on the morning of her disappearance, to discuss something.
In the last known footage of Boushra, she was saying goodbye to two of her children, on her way to meet Alhamad. Later that morning, it became clear that something was wrong. Boushra failed to pick up her other children at daycare at 11:30 a.m., and the staff there immediately raised the alarm.
On that same morning, Alhamad was filmed leaving the asylum center where he was staying in Zeist. He was later captured on camera refueling his gray Peugeot 307 SW station wagon [license plate 36-LH-RN] on the A1 highway near Amersfoort. A similar car was filmed in a parking lot near Poortdreef, 30 minutes before Boushra was filmed there for the last time.
The young mother of five was found killed a week later, on August 14, in a nature reserve on the outskirts of Almere-Poort. The police believe that Alhamad took her there and violently killed her.
“Although he was not seen or filmed with Boushra that Thursday morning, police suspect him of involvement in her death,” the police said on Opsporing Verzocht. The suspicions arise from their background, Alhamad’s movements that Thursday morning, and the fact that neither he nor his car has been seen since.
Investigators asked anyone with information about Alhamad’s whereabouts to come forward.
