Two children saw how 9-year-old Gino van der Straeten was lured to a car on 1 June by someone posing as a football coach. The boy was then dragged into the car. That’s what the mother of the children who saw this happen to newspaper The Limburger†
The two children, a 14-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, were playing soccer with Gino on the night in question. According to the children, a man came onto the playing field in Kerkrade at around 6.30 pm to play football with them. The man said he was a football coach. Witnesses have said this before. He complimented Gino on his football skills and asked him to come to his car. The children watched as Gino volunteered to walk along and was then pulled into the car.
According to Joke Hoegee, mother of the children, her son and daughter have been interrogated three times by the police and their testimonies must be taken ‘extremely seriously’. The kids, along with several other kids playing soccer, are the last to see Gino in public.
‘Big impact’
how late The Limburger know that the events have a major impact on the family. “When my daughter saw a broadcast about Gino on TV last week, she burst into tears. She finds it very scary to go to school by bike in the area now. My son goes to school in Heerlen, he is a bit more closed. He is also very shocked. Me as a mother of course. It could also have been one of my children who could have taken the suspect.”
The Public Prosecution Service suspects 22-year-old Donny M. from Geleen of kidnapping and murdering Gino. M. was arrested a few days after the kidnapping and is currently held in restrictions, meaning he is only allowed to talk to his lawyer. M. has to go to the Pieter Baan Center for a psychiatric examination. At the age of 17, the man had already been convicted of abusing a boy.
Because this is an ongoing case, the Dutch police do not want to make any statements.
Fires, theft and countless oddities: the turbulent life of Donny M. (+)
“If Gino would have been here, he would have looked wide-eyed”: family and friends commemorate the deceased boy during wake (+)
The mother of a previous victim of Donny M. (22) testifies: “As a 12-year-old he was said to be too young to be punished” (+)
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