Experts dispute whether teen killed in 2020 crash was moved to ditch by a third party
In the investigation into the death of 14-year-old Tamar, who was fatally struck in a 2020 hit-and-run road incident and later found in a roadside ditch, experts and investigators have sharply disagreed over whether she could have moved herself after the collision or whether her body was repositioned, as both the circumstances of the crash and her final location remain under scrutiny, NU.nl reported.
Tamar was discovered in the night of July 24 to July 25, 2020, in the grassy shoulder along the Zeedijk between her home area of Marken and Monnickendam after being run over. Years of investigation have not clarified what happened in the minutes following the impact or how she came to rest in the ditch.
A central unresolved issue is her final position. Investigators say it does not naturally fit the mechanics of the collision. Competing scenarios considered include whether she was struck again, whether her body was moved, or whether she survived long enough to crawl into the roadside verge on her own.
Police have largely ruled out a second impact. Forensic pathologist Frank van de Goot, who authored a report submitted to the Public Prosecution Service at the request of victim advocate Sébas Diekstra, also rejects the idea that she moved herself.
“It is not the usual practice for a forensic reporter to fall into absolutism, but perhaps that is justifiable in this case and on this question,” Van de Goot wrote. He concluded that it is “therefore deliberately excluded” that she could have crawled into the berm on her own with such severe injuries.
His assessment is more definitive than that of a forensic pathologist from the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) consulted by police. That expert noted the severity of internal injuries but cautioned, “The internal injuries do not necessarily have to have immediately led to direct incapacitation or death.”
A municipal coroner who examined Tamar stated that if she survived the crash, it would only have been for a very short time.
The question of her body position remains central. Evidence suggests she was likely in a seated or lying position when she was struck by the Mazda 3. Damage patterns on the vehicle also indicate it was not a head-on collision.
Police officers who found her described an unusual scene. Her arms were positioned upward and her legs were extended straight together. “As if she had been laid out,” one officer said.
An officer also observed a drag mark across the asphalt running in a straight line along the road. Multiple responding officers expressed suspicion that the scene did not fully align with a simple impact-and-rest scenario.
Tamar disappeared that night after an argument with her mother about phone and laptop use. Hours later, she was found by the roadside. It remains unclear whether she entered the road accidentally or intentionally.
The driver of the vehicle, identified as Jamal T., told investigators he did not realize he had struck a person. The car carried four occupants. T. said he and a passenger were using a phone navigation app at the time. After continuing to a nearby parking area, they noticed only minor damage to the car.
The group, originally from Germany, had applied for asylum in that country. They were in the Netherlands camping but left for Germany the morning after the crash. The vehicle was later washed in Germany and put up for sale two months afterward.
The Public Prosecution Service initially concluded there were no indications of a more serious criminal offense. T. was issued a 1,500-euro fine for careless driving, and the case was considered closed at that stage.
That changed after a traffic accident expert, commissioned by Diekstra, concluded the body had been moved. The expert’s findings were used in an Article 12 procedure initiated by the family’s lawyer, which successfully forced renewed prosecution.
This year, after four years of investigation, prosecutors confirmed T. will be prosecuted for involvement in a fatal traffic accident and leaving the scene. However, the case remains unresolved in key respects.
Police reconstruction indicates that occupants of the Mazda had at least a brief opportunity to move the body, though the timeframe was described as “very tight.” Investigators also found that an unidentified car passed the scene in the opposite direction minutes after the crash, followed shortly after by Tamar’s father, who was searching for his daughter.
If the body was moved, police consider it most plausible that it was done by one or more occupants of the Mazda. However, no definitive forensic proof has been found. No DNA from the suspects was detected on Tamar’s body, though traces from unknown third parties were present in too small a quantity to indicate handling. T. maintains that none of the occupants exited the vehicle.
For Diekstra, the overall findings point in one direction. “The traces found and expert findings show that the final position in which Tamar was found cannot be explained by the collision itself. Concrete indications for an alternative scenario are lacking. One must assume that her body was dragged or moved after the collision.”
