The hope that one day the doorbell will ring and your loved one will show up at the door. Thousands of relatives of people who are missing have that feeling. With the annual action Do you miss Mei? asks the police to pay extra attention to missing persons cases. At present, 254 people have been reported missing. Almost ten percent of these were last seen in Brabant. These are some of those missing persons cases.
About 40,000 people go missing every year. Fortunately, most of them are recovered within 48 hours. At the moment 24 people are missing who were last seen in Brabant. If you look at the group of people who are missing, you see differences in the nature of the missing persons. Some of the missing people have probably been kidnapped.
You also see a significant group of people who come from the criminal circuit. People often suspect that a missing person has something to do with it. You also have a small group among the missing who probably don’t want to be found.
Missing in Brabant
Anny Heyligers has been missing the longest in our province. When her husband arrived at their apartment on the Boutenslaan in Eindhoven on November 30, 1966, his wife was not there. 23-year-old Anny had left, leaving their 14-month-old son alone. It is not clear to this day where Anny went or what happened to her. At this point, Anny would be 78 years old.
A more recent missing persons case in Brabant is the case of Maria Drezaliu. The 15-year-old girl has been missing since April 27 this year. The girl, originally Romanian, was in an institution because of concerns about human trafficking. Drezaliu was outside exercising on King’s Day when she was taken by a bald, chubby man in her forties. According to the police, it is possible that she is still in the company of that suspect, but that does not have to be the case.
Another special case of missing persons is the case of Jan and Riet Kelders. The couple left on September 22, 1989 in a small van. At first it was suspected that they had been away for a while or that they had left for England. They built barrel organs and had managed to build up a large international network with their company. That seneario was only eliminated when the empty delivery van was found in Vlissingen.
In 2016, the police reopened the case after receiving tips that the couple would probably be lying in a concrete floor of their old house. At that time there was a hairdressing salon in the house. The hairdresser could finally breathe a sigh of relief when there were no bodies on their floor. However, it does mean that Jan and Riet have still not been found.
The police also take a crime into account when Maarten Geurts goes missing. Maarten’s mother is sure that he was murdered. However, his mother does not know who would have killed Maarten. For a long time it was thought that the criminal would have murdered Jan B. Geurts. A year before the disappearance, B. Geurts had already kidnapped.
Maarten’s mother is only sure that B. didn’t do it. Not long after the disappearance, she paid a visit to the infamous car demolition company of B. In 2015 she told Omroep Brabant: “He admitted that he was behind the kidnapping, but he said he had nothing to do with his disappearance of my son. . It sounds crazy: but I believe Jan to this day”. The last time the 26-year-old Geurts was seen was on May 28, 1990 at Roosendaal station.
