Exactly a year ago, Yoran Krol from Sleeuwijk went missing. After a party on December 23, the sixteen-year-old boy disappeared. Since then, various searches have been launched, but his body has never been found. Yet volunteer Pave Verbeek perseveres. One year later, Pave is still looking for Yoran.
Week in, week out – at times even daily – Pave wanders along the Merwede in search of the missing boy. Armed with his drone, he is still looking for clues to solve the case. But what drives Pave to become so engrossed in this mystery?
“I have a son myself,” says the volunteer. “I am a single father. If my son went missing, I would search this way too. The story continues to touch me and that is why I continue to persevere.”
Together with other volunteers from the National Drone Team Search and Rescue, Pave has now developed a technique to quickly search large areas. “We fly over the area with a drone that continuously takes photos,” he says. “A program then looks at the photos and calculates within a millisecond whether there are human remains in view.” In this way Pave hopes to find something of Yoran to bring his parents some peace.
Yoran has often been searched for, including the largest citizen action ever in the Netherlands. In January, 2,500 volunteers searched for him. Yoran’s aunt was very impressed by that. “It just gives me goosebumps. The fact that so many people, many of whom do not even know the family, have come to look for it really means a lot to us.”
Many actions have been taken in the past year, see an overview here:
The police stopped the search in January. He assumes that Yoran ended up in the river and drowned. Due to the current he could have ended up in many places and the search area is expanding every day. “We cannot randomly sail everywhere with the sonar boat,” says the spokesperson.
Yoran was last seen on the night of December 24 at the De Pomp youth center in Almkerk. A day later his bicycle was found on the Merwedebrug, about 12 kilometers from De Pomp. Later the boy’s coat was also found in the water near Papendrecht.
The NDT Search and Rescue consists of volunteers and is financially supported by donations. Do you support the team’s mission? Then click here to donate.