A silent tour will take place in Kerkrade on Wednesday evening for 9-year-old Gino van der Straeten from Maastricht.
The silent tour starts at the Eurode Business Center and goes to the playground on Hertogenlaan, where Gino was last seen on Wednesday evening. About two hundred ‘tough and beautiful cars and motorcycles’ form an honorary hedge on the Roderlandbaan and Ailbertuslaan, says the municipality of Kerkrade.
Also read: Gino family: ‘We are in shock and intensely sad’
‘Respectful tribute’
Gino loved beautiful vehicles. “The combination of the honorary hedge with beautiful cars and motorcycles, the tour through the Rolduckerveld district and the chosen final destination provides a respectful and dignified tribute to Gino, his family and friends,” the municipality said in a statement.
‘Hard blow’
The death of Gino has caused a lot of indignation in the Netherlands. “Gino will no longer come home, will never play football again or feel the love of his family. A hard blow for everyone. It is an event that touches the entire community deeply. The silent journey is in line with this feeling and responds to the wish from Gino’s family,” says the municipality.
Also read: Case Gino: how do you deal with this as a school?
Huge crowds
The silent tour starts at 7:30 PM. The municipality of Kerkrade takes into account the ‘expected crowds’. Participants can gather at the roundabout at the Eurode Business Center from 19:00.
Search for Gino
Gino stayed with his older sister in Kerkrade and did not come home on Wednesday evening after playing outside. Not much later, the police sounded the alarm. After he went missing, hundreds of people in Kerkrade and Landgraaf went looking for the boy.
Suspect in the picture
In the night from Friday to Saturday, the police arrested 22-year-old Donny M. in Geleen. At the direction of the suspect, Gino’s body was found on Saturday morning behind a burned-out house in Geleen. The twenty-something is suspected of kidnapping and involvement in the death of 9-year-old Gino. The suspect will be arraigned before the examining magistrate on Tuesday afternoon.
Also read: ‘Gino suspect’ previously convicted of child abuse