“Are they on foot? Have they been picked up? Is this happening against their will or is it a plan?” Sander de Groot, father of missing Renée de Groot (14) from Bergen op Zoom, is completely in the dark. His daughter spent a day with him in Maastricht on Saturday. A day later, Renée disappeared with friend Louise Tensen (16) from Vlissingen from a closed youth institution in Ossendrecht. “I just don’t understand it,” says Sander.
Renée’s father has been going door to door with flyers for days. Whether people have seen something, or have camera footage. He does everything he can to find his daughter. The photo of Renée on the flyer was taken last Saturday in Maastricht. “Thumbs up, smile. And a day later everything looks different. I just don’t understand it,” Sander sighs.
Renée had been living in the youth institution for eight months, after which her parents had been worried about her for years. She is a very secretive girl, her father says, which is very difficult to penetrate. Ultimately, her parents had to decide to leave it to the professionals, he says. “It just didn’t work anymore.”
“The two found each other and complemented each other.”
Renée soon met Louise in the Almata care facility, they both stayed in the closed section. In the care institution, girls quickly became ‘best friends’, says Sander, who also speaks on behalf of Louise’s family. “Louise is a free extrovert and Renée is an introvert. The two found each other and complemented each other.” When Sander came to pick up his daughter on Saturdays for a night at home, Renée and Louise always gave each other a big hug.
The police believe that the two were picked up by car. “Louise has a large network. This was probably a premeditated plan.” Where are Louise and Renée and with whom? Sander has no idea. He has been going from one emotion to another for days. Thousands of thoughts run through his head. “And then I sleep for another three hours and it goes on again.”
In between handing out flyers, while he is taking a break in a cafe in Ossendrecht, he tells his story. “We really don’t know anything. Renée and Louise are now just above Yoran on the list of missing people. When you see that, you think: Fuck. You just don’t want this. We really don’t know.”
“They are 14 and 16 and they don’t see the danger or intentions of other people.”
“They just need to come home, that’s all we want. The girls need to know that we love them dearly, no matter where they are or who they are with. They are 14 and 16 and they see the danger or the intentions other people don’t.”
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