The Public Prosecution Service offered a reward 55 times in ten years for the golden tip after a serious crime in Brabant. Not once was that money actually paid out. This is evident from data from the National Public Prosecutor’s Office that Omroep Brabant requested. Nevertheless, according to the judiciary, it remains a valuable tool. “If it doesn’t benefit, it won’t hurt,” says a spokesman.
Ten thousand euros. The Public Prosecution Service offered that amount on Tuesday for the golden tip that leads to escaped TBS officer Sherwin Windster. He shot dead Tilburger Mick Pitai in 2015 during a robbery that got out of hand. The man managed to escape from a TBS clinic in June and is still a fugitive.
The drug is mainly used for very serious crimes that have not yet been solved. This concerns murder, manslaughter, attempted assassinations, missing persons and very violent robberies. In our province, 55 such rewards have been offered in the past ten years. The one for Windster is number 56. But not once did a tip really lead to the missing puzzle piece.
Exploding lighter
An example of such an unsolved case is the murder of Jenneke de Wind from Tilburg. She fell into a coma in 1993 after a sabotaged lighter exploded near her face. She died in hospital two months later.
Twenty-five years after the murder, the judiciary hoped to breathe new life into the case by offering 20,000 euros for the golden tip. We are still waiting for the crucial information that will break open this investigation.
A more recent crime is that in which 44-year-old Leon Viellevoije from Moergestel was killed. In 2017 he was found in a burnt-out van in the outskirts of his hometown. That happened the night before he was tried as a suspect in a major drug investigation. It has never been made clear who killed him. Not even after the Public Prosecution Service offered a reward of 15,000 euros.
If you look at the number of rewards offered in Brabant cases, you will see a peak between 2016 and 2020. This can largely be explained, says a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service. From 2017, the police released the cold case calendar.
That calendar, with 52 long-running, unsolved cases every year, was distributed in prisons and TBS institutions. Rewards were often offered in these cases. The thought was that detainees might have more information about these crimes. Last year, the police stopped the project because its effectiveness was said to be too low.
Fear of revenge
The amounts that have been awarded over the past 10 years are generally around 15,000 euros. They were therefore never paid out in Brabant. A report on golden tips published by the Open University in 2021 lists several reasons why people do not report with tips. Fear of revenge is one of them. Increasing rewards does not help, the researchers concluded.
But why is this drug still used? According to the National Public Prosecutor’s Office, the reward remains a ‘valuable, ultimate means’. “As the police and judiciary, we prefer to see people who have something to report do so of their own accord. But sometimes they need a helping hand. In the form of a financial incentive,” says a spokesperson.
According to the information officer, it does not necessarily matter that the chance of success is so low. “If it doesn’t benefit, it won’t hurt. Admittedly, the number of rewards paid is also small nationally. But we are happy with every case that is solved as a result.”
Different target
In their report, researchers from the Open University give another reason why the low success rate is not necessarily a bad thing. According to the researchers, the purpose of reward money has shifted over the years.
Where this remedy was first mainly used as a last resort in cold cases, it is now more often used at the start of a criminal investigation. According to the researchers, the judiciary tries to create unrest among perpetrators and people in their environment, in the hope that they will make mistakes under pressure. For example, by discussing crucial information over a tapped telephone line.
The low success rate does not prevent the Public Prosecution Service from once again offering thousands of euros to, in this case, track down TBS officer Sherwin Windster.
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