Yvonne was 75 years old when she walked to her death through the woods near Halsteren. She met Elias M. The TBS officer strangled and raped her. Elias says he was compelled by the devil’s voice in his head. “My memory is that I let her suffocate with great pain and sadness.”
The suspect was clearer than ever with this confession. But questions still remain and it is unclear what really inspired him.
Demon’s name is Iblis
M. (33) has an extensive history of psychoses, confused and aggressive behavior and has been extensively investigated. According to experts, a cannabis addiction increases his disorders. And Elias hears voices in his head. “That demon has been standing next to me for years. His name is Iblis.”
He already had a criminal record for street robbery. At the end of 2000 he derailed in his hometown of Amsterdam. Assaults, trespassing and he raped a woman who was running. He was arrested and given a TBS.
Elias ended up at Vrederust in Halsteren, at De Mare where more TBS patients are treated, behind high fences and cameras. In the seclusion of the woods, M. found calmer waters, he stabilized, there were no incidents and he was given more freedom.
A kiss
Yet on October 10, 2023, things went horribly wrong. “I heard God talking,” he said in court on Wednesday. At the same time, Yvonne (75) walked towards Vrederust. Her husband had just given her a kiss and was already walking home. Yvonne continued walking a bit. Not knowing she was walking towards death.
She met Elias at the Wasven. “I saw her from a distance. Then I saw the devil or demon enter my body. Voices said very loudly that the victim is also a devil and was going to kill me and do sexual things to me,” Elias said.
He walked towards her. The pedometer in Yvonne’s cell phone stopped. At three minutes to four that afternoon, Yvonne stopped. Or was she lying still.
Witness
Yvonne was raped. Elias left his DNA behind. The judge asked how it was possible that his semen was found on the victim’s underpants and jeans. “That doesn’t come out of the blue, does it?” Elias says he can’t remember that. “What happened is just too bad, too difficult to talk about.” He avoided questions about the rape all day. He did admit to the murder.
“I’m ashamed of that. I let that person suffocate. I had to drag her. Put leaves on the victim, the devil said, and: go away, go away! I also had to hide the clothes and telephone. I heard: do it before the devil does it to you.”
The woman was strangled or smothered, or perhaps both. Elias did it to the judges. “That I had my hands around her neck.” He also gestured as he dragged her along the forest path. A witness saw someone standing with leaves in his hands.
A search operation was launched that evening. Yvonne was found dead just after midnight.
Relatives also spoke in court on Wednesday. The widower told his story in tears. “This man killed my wife and I miss her every day. He ruined my life.” He told how shocking it was to have to identify her, his lover of more than forty years.
Elias responded by once again admitting to the murder. “My memory is that I let her suffocate with great pain and sadness.” He remains silent about the rape.
The public prosecutor will come up with a penalty demand on Thursday. The court has scheduled the ruling for January 26.
In October 2023, the GGZ at Vrederust was shocked by two serious incidents. First the murder of Yvonne by a resident of De Mare and a week and a half later there was a violent escape from the Mare of another TBS patient Lennard C. He was shot by the police near Hulten.
Various investigations were carried out and it turned out that the GGZ was not to blame, but the GGZ decided to no longer include a specific category of TBS patients.