The dead man who was found in Wouwse Plantage at the end of March was stabbed to death. The police and judiciary think that his daughter is the culprit, together with a friend. “After a quarrel with carnival, they devised a plan together to kill Gradus,” the public prosecutor said during a short and first public hearing before the court in Breda. There is a lot of evidence, it seems, including through a stack of Snapchat messages.
Gradus Haisch (58) from Bergen op Zoom was found on Friday evening March 24 this year on the Julianaweg, in the outskirts of Wouwse Plantage. The special thing was that the victim was a stone’s throw from the warehouse where the torture container was discovered in 2020. There is no connection. The spot was probably chosen because it is remote and unlit.
Two suspects
During the criminal investigation, the police quickly tracked down a 35-year-old man from Bergen op Zoom. He was arrested a day later. A week later, Gradus’ 20-year-old daughter followed.
According to the officer, the evidence against the two continues to pile up. For example, there is evidence that the man was at the crime scene by car, his phone beamed at a mast nearby. And there is clothing with blood from Gradus. He would have thrown the male suspect away in an underground waste container near him. A knife was also found.
snapchat
The same applies to Gradus’ daughter. “The evidence against her is also piling up. She made contradictory statements and has not seen anything, she says,” said the prosecutor.
But the detectives found 1290 deleted chats that the daughter had with the male suspect. They called each other frequently, according to police. Also on the conscious evening. In addition, they would also have been on Snapchat about Gradus. “We managed to recover snap messages this week,” the officer said.
Carnival
For example, a message was found from February 21, on Carnival Tuesday, from the woman. “I’ll go to jail if I have to, that’s worth everything to me.” On February 23, the male suspect searched online for what “donate DNA” means and for “carbon monoxide poisoning.” “Both of them don’t want to talk about it,” said the officer.
Only the male suspect was in the room on Tuesday. He didn’t want to say anything. The woman was left in prison. Both lawyers also had no questions or requests for release.
The suspicion is officially murder. It is often extended if this cannot be proven. Then there will also be manslaughter or assault on the indictment, which was previously the case in this case. But only murder is now the starting point at the Public Prosecution Service. With this, the police and judiciary also send the signal that they have a strong case with a lot of evidence.
Trunk
The officer further announced that the substantive court case would come with a digital presentation with a timeline of the events. “In the coming months, further investigations will be carried out on the mobile phones and the car of the male suspect. We are examining the trunk to see if the weapon was in it.”
The hearing was attended by relatives of the victim and of the suspect. Some of them sat behind glass in the public gallery. Shortly after the hearing, a relative in the corridors screamed her emotions out. The session continued in peace.
A next interim session is scheduled for September.