Anyone who enters Abcoude is welcomed by a banner above the road that says ‘Feestweek Abcoude’. Already the scaffolding will be built this Saturday morning along the Hoogstraat towards Kerkplein. But this year the five-day village festival is overshadowed by the violent death of 17-year-old Lisa. In the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, cycling from the center of Amsterdam to her house in Abcoude, she was killed. A 22-year-old suspect was arrested on Thursday evening.
Several retailers in the center have placed a burning candle outside for their shop windows with a ticket with the name of Lisa. Here and there inhabitants walk with a flowers towards the Dorpskerk, where since Friday evening and also this Saturday there is an opportunity to come together and share the grief.
Arie (69) – He doesn’t want his last name in the newspaper – walks with his wheelbarrow along the Hugo de Vriespark. He is busy moving posts so that the fairground operators can drive into the center soon. “The whole village is shocked. Everyone is talking about it. I have been living here all my life and have seen how more and more young families have come to live in this municipality in recent years. Many children of the same age have been lisa. It is terrible.”
In Boutique des Fleur, opposite the Dorpskerk, many customers come by to buy loose flowers to lay down at the entrance of the Dorpskerk. Bouquets are also ordered for the Lisa family. Owner Whitney Veltkamp (32) says that she has never had to purchase so many flowers. “My husband went to the auction today to get even more, that has never happened before.”
She does not know the Lisa family well but calls it ‘very’ what happened. She herself has a two -year -old son, she knows what it means to be a mother. “This is very close.” Olga Freriks, who works in the flower shop together with Veltkamp, says that she has three adult daughters. “Losing your daughter in such a way is dramatic.”
She experiences that a young girl can just be killed on the street as “a big turning.” “Not only in Abcoude, people are now working on femicide throughout the country. This happens too often, in too many places.” The 22-year-old man who was arrested on Thursday evening is suspected of the murder of Lisa by the police. The police also suspect the man in two previous cases. Last Friday a woman along the Weespertrekvaart fell victim to serious sexual violence; A woman was also attacked in this area on 10 August. According to the police, there are “no indications of sexual violence.”
According to Veltkamp, the fact that the suspect was arrested in an asylum reception of the COA in Amsterdam ensures “that people start to think differently about certain things.” She is referring to asylum seekers. “I hope something will be done about it. You don’t want to say that they all have to go, but you start thinking.”
‘Togetherness dominates’
At the Dorpskerk, the flowers are in piles along the wall at the entrance. At the initiative of the Church and Cultural Youth Center Tumult, together with the municipality and Festivities Foundation, it was decided to open the doors for everyone who wants to consider the death of Lisa. The church was already visited on Friday evening, according to Iris Goudkamp, nearly a thousand visitors came by.
“What dominates is togetherness,” says Goudkamp. Together with Krijn Kleemans, chairman of the Tumult Foundation, she came up with the idea of opening the church. “You have to offer people something when something like that happens.” Lisa’s death has a huge impact on the community. “I hope that we as women are safe wherever we go on the bike. There is now also anger about that, but at the moment love dominates. The need to support each other is great.”
Inside the church there is an opportunity to talk to each other, light a candle and write a personal message for the family in a memorial book. “There is no program and there are no further speakers,” says Krijn Kleemans. With his family – two daughters – he has been living in Abcoude since 2013. “This village has eight thousand inhabitants, everyone knows each other. The point is that we can now share this grief together.” There is a row in front of the church. Most people with flowers in their hand, some with tearing eyes, two women are silent in front of the entrance.
‘Recognizable for many people’
Maarten Divendal, mayor of the municipality of De Ronde Venen, including Abcoude, also stands by the church. “This is such a drama for the family, you want to be able to share this. As a parent it is already difficult to let go of your child, especially when they are around fifteen. In addition, most children go to school in Amsterdam and have to cycle along the same road that Lisa took on the way back.” He points to the national impact of this murder. “It is unacceptable that women cannot live in freedom in this country.”
He does not want to think about any political consequences yet. “For me it is now about people being able to meet each other.” The planned party week continues “in an appropriate way,” he says, with the permission of Lisa’s parents. “It will be more a village festival than a festival, with space for conversation and meeting.”
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