“I’ve been working on it all those 38 years,” sighs Arie van der Stelt. And that also applies to his neighbor Joke: “The disappearance of Germa is a common thread in our lives.” The residents of the Dwarssteeg, the place where the then 19-year-old Germa disappeared, hope for closure. “Germa deserves a dignified farewell.”
On Thursday, the Peter R. de Vries Foundation announced that it is offering a reward of 250,000 euros for the golden tip that leads to Germa being found. She disappeared in 1984 after a night out in Gorinchem. After she was dropped off at her parental home on the Dwarssteeg by her neighbor’s boy, nothing more was heard of her.
Joke, now 57, was the same age as Germa. 19 years. “I was in her class at De Regenboog primary school here in the village. Germa wanted to study medicine. She was a serious and smart girl. She was full of life.”
“It’s just incomprehensible that someone can disappear overnight. Everyone in the street has been interrogated.”
Joke still remembers how the whole village was turned upside down after Germa didn’t show up for her summer job in July 1984. “It’s just incomprehensible that someone can disappear overnight. Everyone in the street has been interrogated.”
Arie van der Stelt (81) had known his neighbor Germa since she was born. “Germa was a very serious girl. At the age of 19 she still made confessions in the Reformed Church. Very sincere. She had become a beautiful young woman in those years. And then disappear from the face of the earth… Incomprehensible.”
According to both Arie and Joke, mistakes were made in the investigation into Germa’s disappearance. “It is a pity that it was handled so laconically. Traces were only looked for days later,” says Joke. “There were clear traces of violence in the house,” said Arie. “And traces of blood were found.”
“Germa’s father is no longer alive, but her mother is. You grant her mother that she can take her child away.”
According to 81-year-old Arie, it is extremely important that Germa is found. “Her father is no longer alive, but her mother is. You grant her mother that she can take her child away.” Arie is convinced that the use of the Peter R. de Vries Foundation will lead to a breakthrough. “Here comes the result. This comes out. I have been convinced of that all those 38 years.”
“It remains a common thread in our lives,” says Joke. “Not only with me, but also with the other forty-somethings here in the village.” Arie is still very much involved with it to this day. “This story lives from this tip of Nieuwendijk to the other tip of Nieuwendijk. Among the generation from ’30 to ’80, it is still very much alive.”
Since Germa’s disappearance, Joke and her husband have been extra alert. “Tonight my daughter is going to dinner with colleagues in Rotterdam. My husband immediately says that she should not walk to the parking garage alone. My daughter is 26 years old, of course! But that feeling always remains.”
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