Will he go to jail for years, or will the judge believe Jeroen L.’s story? That question will be central in the Breda court on Friday morning. The judge will rule against the first suspect in the brutal murder of Gradus Haisch (58), in early 2023 in the outskirts of Wouwse Plantage.
First let’s look at what the weather was like. For that we go back to March 24, 2023. That cold Friday evening, the control room was called around half past nine. A young woman sounds on the line. Upset, she tells how her father has just been attacked with a knife. If the emergency services arrive a little later, it is already too late. Gradus has now lost liters of blood and can no longer be saved.
Later, investigation revealed that his skull had been smashed several times with a blunt object. Possibly a crowbar or the back of a hammer. The murder weapon is never found. And he was stabbed several times with a knife. So much force was used that several vertebrae in addition to his aorta were hit.
The police soon have the first suspect in mind: 35-year-old Jeroen L.. They succeed with the help of an attentive witness, who saw Jeroen’s car driving away from the scene of the murder.
When police officers see Jeroen throwing away a garbage bag the next morning, they decide to arrest him. Later it turns out that the bag is filled with bloody clothing. Blood of Gradus.
Plot twist
But moments later, things take a bizarre turn. Another suspect is arrested: Gradus’s 20-year-old daughter. The daughter, who was there when her father was killed, called the police and posted an emotional speech on Facebook a day later. “What was done to you last night, they took your life in front of me,” she wrote in that post.
You can hear the whole story about this case in the podcast The Snapchat Murder. Text continues below the player.
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But why did Gradus have to die? It is clear that his daughter had been in a relationship with Jeroen, fifteen years his senior, for some time. Something her protective father was reportedly against. The bond between father and daughter is said to have been derailed after an argument during carnival, a month before the murder.
And then we come to the Snapchat messages, which make this case so unique. Because during the investigation after the murder, the police and the judiciary managed to unearth almost 1,300 messages via that platform. Messages between the daughter and Jeroen, in which, according to the Public Prosecution Service, plans are being made to kill Gradus.
Jeroen denies
For a long time it seemed that both suspects would stand trial in December. Until shortly before that hearing, the daughter hired another lawyer, who needed extra time to read the file. Her case was therefore moved, but Jeroen’s continued.
He himself denied having anything to do with the murder those days. Yes, he did indeed make an appointment with Gradus on that fateful evening. But that was to tell him about the relationship with his daughter. Not to do anything to him, says Jeroen. According to him, when he arrived at the scene, Gradus was already lying dead on the ground. With his daughter next to him. In short: not he, but she killed Gradus.
The Public Prosecution Service does not agree with that story and demanded 22 years in prison against Jeroen. On Friday he will hear what the judge thinks about it.
Curious about images from the court? In the episode of Crime Explained below, we delve deeper into the case.
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