One deceased, five suspects, but not one charged with murder or manslaughter. The death of Tess Abels (38) from Roermond is caught in a net of question marks. The story about a drug lab in Kiel-Windeweer, an elderly farmer and a refugee ‘mate’.
They have to look closely, the agents who are digging out a site at the Nieuwe Compagnie in Kiel-Windeweer on August 22, 2022. It looks like a blanket. A piece of clothing, perhaps. But they see it right. It’s a body. Although it is hardly recognizable as such, because the man is doused with a black, tar-like substance.
Later this turns out to be Tess Abels from Roermond. Why is his body in a well about 300 kilometers from his home?
Gas masks in car
Back to July 17, 2022. It is 7 p.m. when the police checks a Volkswagen Golf on the Hoogeweg in Staphorst. Behind the wheel is Brahim B. (45) from Venlo. Next to him sits Abels. Officers see Umit A. (27) in the backseat. Like Abels, he comes from Roermond. The men look somewhat nervous, the officers involved later write in an official report. Two of the occupants also appear to have no ID with them. The police search the car and find gas masks, gloves, spoons, pH meters and goggles. All of them materials that are used in drug labs.
In addition, the police found photos of ecstasy pills, blocks of hashish and kilograms of hemp on a telephone in the car, and an instructional video on how to mix liquids. In the same phone is a photo of a note on which is written ‘Hogen meeren shopping center, Hoogezand, at cafe Startshart, black bus’. The navigation system in the car is also set to Hoogezand, the main street to be precise.
Dilemma for agents
The officers can do two things: arrest the men on suspicion of preparatory acts to produce drugs or let them go. There are several risks in the first option. Some drug criminals have an explanation for the presence of such materials and thus may go unpunished. In addition, the police will not know where a possible drug lab is located and who exactly is involved. On the other hand, if you let the men go, you may never see them again. There is simply not enough police capacity to thoroughly investigate every drug suspicion.
These agents opt for a middle ground and place a GPS tracker under the car of the Limburg trio. They hope to be led to a drug lab. However, the Limburgers turn the car and drive back south. This also stops the follow-up action from the police. They probably won’t see the men again.
However, that is without Umit A. counted. Six days after the special police check in Staphorst, he suddenly finds himself in a meadow in Hoogezand with a bloodied head and bare upper body. Police find a confused, injured man. He yells at cops and won’t explain how he got hurt or what he’s doing so far from home in the first place. In the end, the police drop him off at the train station.
Missing
What the police do not yet know is that this Umit A. is a few kilometers away from a drug lab in Kiel-Windeweer when he is found in a confused state. His DNA is later found in the same lab. They also do not know that it is precisely in that period that Tess Abels is heard from for the last time. On July 24, his phone still makes contact with transmission towers in Hoogezand. Abels has told his mother that he has to work in France for three weeks. There is contact for the first few days, but at a certain point it becomes quiet. Abels is also silent on his son’s birthday in August. He was reported missing on August 11.
Eleven days later, a large police team enters the grounds of a farmer at the Nieuwe Compagnie in Kiel-Windeweer. Officers find an inactive drug lab. The soil is seriously contaminated. In a well they find the almost unrecognizable body of Abels. The owner, farmer Ernst B. (69), is arrested. His wife Janny (66) and acquaintance Chris van D. (66) are also regarded as suspects. A can of soda is found on the grounds with DNA from both Umit A. and Abels on it. The police are thinking of checking in Staphorst; there the men were seen together in a car full of materials used in a drug lab.
It immediately makes all occupants of that car suspicious. However, Umit A. appears to have left for Turkey. Three days after his adventure in the pasture he flew to Alanya. Lawyer Joost Antonides does not want to say anything about his client’s alleged role in this story. Brahim B. from Venlo was arrested in September. However, he is soon outside again. There seems to be too little concrete evidence linking him to the lab in Kiel-Windeweer, let alone Abels’ death. His lawyer Marcel Heuvelmans also says that he has not heard from the judiciary for some time. A spokesman for the judiciary in turn said that no final follow-up decision has yet been made about all suspects.
Empty warehouses in the north
As a result, after nine months of research, crucial questions remain unanswered. What are three Limburgers doing in Groningen? Justice thinks that they – like many other drug criminals in recent years – take advantage of the ailing farms and empty warehouses in the north to produce drugs. But of the three men, one is dead, one is in Turkey and the third says he has no answers. This makes farmer Ernst B. the main suspect at the moment. He is not only charged with involvement in the drug lab, but also with a role in hiding Abel’s body.
Justice did not take any chances with that suspicion. The farmer was wiretapped by the police in prison. Ernst B. says in conversation with his family: ‘I know who did it, but I’m not going to say anything. No, they can’t figure it out.’ He later denies to the police any knowledge about Abels’ death or how his body ended up in the well. Ernst B. also claims that he had no knowledge of the drug lab on his property. He nevertheless has something to explain, according to the judiciary.
How did Abels die? And who was involved in his death, or in the concealment of his body? The cause of death has not been determined. ‘Advanced post-mortem changes’ also make it difficult to determine the cause. There may be ‘force on the neck’, according to reports from the pathologist, but additional investigations are still ongoing. Without a cause of death, justice cannot prosecute anyone for murder or manslaughter. And so there has been no murder investigation for months now, but a drug investigation. An investigation into a 69-year-old Groningen farmer and his wife, an acquaintance of the elderly couple and a fugitive inhabitant of Roermond.