On August 31, 2009 the carefree life of Laurie Sieben (42) from Eindhoven will come to an end. Her partner and soulmate Basz Zwijsen is shot dead on that day in a house on the Adolf van Cortenbachstraat. Thirteen years later, she comes up with a book about the darkest day of her life.
‘No magic flowers grow on my shit’ will be presented on 31 August in Eindhoven. Laurie began writing months after that fateful night when her soulmate was ripped out of her life forever. “I thought we would always be together,” she says visibly emotional.
Relation
Unfortunately, that was not to be, while things went so well between the two. Basz and Laurie had reunited seven months before the murder after having been in a relationship before. “He suddenly called and that day we went out to dinner together. That same night we ended up in bed together and that didn’t change until his death.”
With Basz, she had found someone as lively as her. He owned a pub and rented houses, she ran a flower shop. “In addition, he was a pacesetter. You could laugh with him, but he always laughed the hardest at his own jokes.”
Fatal evening
She had no idea that her Basz’s entrepreneurial spirit would lead to his death. “We were going to have dinner with friends that night, when he got a call from tenants. At first he wanted to ignore it, but they kept calling. Then we went to the house.”
Laurie is silent for a moment before continuing. “Once in the house I heard Basz arguing with someone. I ran upstairs and then I saw someone standing behind him with a gun. Immediately I dove down and then I heard a bang. I saw Basz collapse, he was dead.”
The shooter was Rawas A. and, as it turned out later, A.’s 16-year-old girlfriend had lured Basz to the student house. She had told A. that she was being abused by Zwijsen and forced into prostitution. The story was a lie, but led the mentally retarded A. to confront Zwijsen armed with a gun.
Short fuse
The perpetrators were convicted. On appeal, A. was sentenced to seven years in prison and TBS with compulsory treatment. The girl received one year of juvenile detention and two years of youth detention
But these punishments couldn’t make up for the loss of Laurie’s friend. She went from a lively person to someone with a short fuse. “I had become very cynical. If someone asked how I was doing, I could become very angry. ‘How do you think it is going with someone whose boyfriend was murdered?”
In the meantime, things are going in the right direction with Eindhoven. She especially finds peace in nature. Now she wants to use her book to help other relatives to make murder a topic of discussion. Something she struggled with for years. “And I want to let people know who Basz was.”
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