1/3 Back on the water for missing Yoran: ‘If there is something, we will find it’
They couldn’t stomach it. Last week Marco de Paauw from Sleeuwijk was sitting at the table after an extensive search for the missing Yoran Krol (16) from his village. “We had a stone in our stomach. Then we decided, one way or another, we’re going again.” And so on Saturday eight boats with thirty people and four sniffer dogs on board took to the water at the Merwede Bridge.
Yoran Krol has been missing since December 24. He was last seen on the night from Saturday to Sunday at the De Pomp youth center in Almkerk. His bicycle was found on the Merwede Bridge. His coat was later found in the river near Papendrecht.
“We were very frustrated that we hadn’t found anything”
Searches have already been conducted recently with divers, sonar boats and an army of volunteers. One of the searches was the largest ever search with citizens in the Netherlands, 2,500 people participated. Marco de Paauw also participated. “We have a whole clique in our street in Sleeuwijk. We were very frustrated that we had not found anything.”
So a group of people decided to do a new search. Smaller in size, with a specialized dog team from Roermond. “Damen Shipyards has arranged a boat with fuel for us, absolutely fantastic. There are also boats from Hardinxveld and Krimpen aan de Lek. We sail towards each other and hope that we will see something along the way.” Yoran’s family supports the search.
“I regularly search here myself, it feels like my own backyard”
It’s almost like looking for a needle in a haystack. “The Biesbosch is an inaccessible area. It was also high tide. There is a lot of drifting reeds and that makes the search difficult.” De Paauw is a nature photographer and knows the area like the back of his hand. “I regularly search here myself, it feels like my own backyard, if there is something, we will find it.”
The search fleet this Saturday consists of large and small ships. “It is precisely those small boats, the salmon scows, that can search well between the reeds and look on the beach. The dogs also make a big difference.”
The case of missing Yoran stirs up a lot of emotion in Marco. “We don’t know where this boy is, we just want to find him, for his parents this is only normal. We have a nice group and we can only do our best.” The team will search until dark this Saturday.