Digna van der Roest (9) disappeared from Groningen 40 years ago. How the murder case caused great unrest: ‘Our children had nightmares about it’

Her parents sound the alarm at night. The police immediately start a search, assisted by neighbors and residents further from the Ulgersmaborg district. Without result; the girl is missing.

The Van der Roest family has only just moved to the new Kamilleweg. “The houses were completed a few months earlier,” a neighbor recalls. “We barely knew each other. It didn’t take long for the whole neighborhood to join in.”

Impact

The impact was huge. Forty years later, the couple from the street − in their 70s now − can still remember everything well. Because Digna remained without a trace, fear took over in the neighbourhood, says the neighbor. “Our sense of security was gone in one fell swoop. This was a young neighborhood with many children. They went to school under supervision and playing outside was no longer there.”

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