The murder of Marja Nijholt in 2013 continues to occupy many people to this day. This woman from Enschede was found dead on New Year’s Day in a driveway in Oss and it has never become clear who is responsible for this. An investigative collective of ordinary citizens under the name bureau Dupin has become involved in the case. One of them is Tanja Saelmans (58) from Oss: “I am working on it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
Tanja is one of the main characters in the series that Videoland made about Bureau Dupin. “I heard about this initiative during the corona crisis and signed up,” says Tanja. “I love true crime. I read a lot and moreover it happened here in Oss, just around the corner from me. Gosh, I thought, maybe I can do my bit.”
Tanja was immediately captivated when she immersed herself in the matter. “It went completely crazy online where everyone can post their ideas on a digital bulletin board and chat and call via channels. I had no overview at all and just started to organize things. Then I received an email asking if I wanted to continue as a moderator. And then the train started moving and it hasn’t stopped. I have already put thousands of hours into this case.”
Tanja is working on the case 24/7. Sounds come from her phone all day long. “I can see what is happening everywhere: on my phone, on my laptop and on my computer. When I get up I already have a lot of messages and that goes on all day long. When I’m cooking, I watch the latest news in the meantime. Now that the series about Bureau Dupin can be seen on Videoland, it is even busier. We have a lot of new registrations from people who also want to help. We are already at 2000 and they all have to be processed.”
Tanja has never met most of the ‘colleagues’. All these people search for the story behind the murder and share their knowledge online. For two years now.
“I never knew Marja, but I know a lot about her now.”
Marja Nijholt was found dead on January 1, 2013 in a driveway on the Berghemseweg in Oss. The four-part series on Videoland shows that she ended up in Oss from her hometown of Enschede via Gronau in Germany. She wanted to visit an acquaintance, but he had no time for her and so she wandered through Oss on New Year’s Eve with a trolley. The woman seemed confused and thought she was being chased.
Here and there she approached people in Oss to be allowed to call. She has been seen in many places, such as cafeteria De Oostwal, café ‘t Libre and at a Tango gas station. But there are also many hours of which there is no image at all. She lost her bicycle somewhere, just like her suitcase, which was more than a hundred meters from the place where she was found dead.
Why did this woman wander through Oss on New Year’s Eve? And why did she first lose her bicycle and then her suitcase before she was found dead in the morning with an open backpack?
Tanja therefore walked the route of Marja through Oss, as far as it is known. Together with a number of other researchers.
“That was very confrontational. The research starts very abstractly, with data. But when you come to the places where Marja has also been, it comes very close. It was dark and cold. You experience exactly what Marja has felt and how long she has wandered around. You can therefore put yourself in her shoes. The strange thing is that I never knew Marja, but I know a lot about her now.”
Tanja does not want to call the people who participate in Bureau Dupin detectives. “We are not. We’re figuring out what the story is through a variety of open sources. We also receive information from the police, but not everything. That is why we are so happy that four witnesses have now come forward. The police never wanted to share witness statements. Now we can make our timeline even better with their stories. Hopefully more people will report who met Marja somewhere on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day in Oss.”
“This is a very exciting experiment.”
After two years of research, the question arises how long Bureau Dupin will continue. Tanja is clear about this: “We are still finding new things and it is therefore still interesting. In addition, the experiment is also very special. We work with hundreds of people on this case, without hierarchy. That is a very interesting experiment. I have already learned a lot from it.”
For the time being, there will be no end to the search for Tanja either. “The case is on my mind and there are still many interesting things to investigate.”
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