Almost 35 years after the murder of Wies Hensen from Budel, three volunteers are making a new attempt to find a breakthrough in this case. The victim’s sister and godchild are happy with the help. “Wies has been dumped like a piece of trash and we still want to know who is responsible for this murder.”
32-year-old Wies Hensen disappeared on August 29, 1989 after she had been to the fair in her hometown of Budel. The woman was found a day later, she had been killed. A perpetrator was never traced.
The police have since done everything possible. For example, a publicity campaign was launched in August 2021 to revive the business. A special podcast was made and a mobile police lab was located at the fair in Budel, where the victim was last seen.
Preliminary investigation
The attention yielded more than 180 tips, but there was no breakthrough. This not only bothers the surviving relatives enormously, but also communications advisor Joop Donkers (63) from Eindhoven. “When the police did everything they could to find new leads two years ago, I started following the case, but there was no more news.”
That is why he published one in August together with Sander Meyer of the Coldcase Affairs Foundation website to continue to draw attention to the murder. “We do a kind of preliminary research and mainly try to involve the public and have them dig into their memories,” Joop explains. “Useful tips go to the police to whom we leave the detective work.”
Two young men
Wies was seen at the Budels fair on August 29, 1989 at a quarter to ten in the evening. She was with two young men at the time. One had striking blond curls, down to the neck. The other had ‘bushy’ hair. Two hours later, eighteen kilometers further on, on the Loonderweg in Dommelen, an older and noisy van stopped.
A witness heard doors opening and closing and rumbling in the cargo area. The van then drove away with its lights off. Wies’s dead body was found exactly at that spot the next morning. “Murdered. Dumped like a piece of garbage,” Annelies and Monique Hensen, sister and goddaughter of Wies, state sadly.
Already 31 tips
The relatives and Joop Donkers now want to know two specific things:
- “Who are those two boys with whom Wies was at the fair? They do not have to be the perpetrators, but they never came forward.”
- “We also want to know what type of van was seen and what it was used for.”
Joop is convinced that someone saw something. Since the website came online, 31 tips have already been received. “I understood from Sander, who follows more cold case cases, that this is really a lot. The tips vary from very general to people who actually name names,” says Joop.
“The people in their twenties at the time are now in their fifties and sixties. By continuing to draw attention to the case with, for example, photos and blogs from that time, we hope to refresh their memories and get more useful tips.”
The police showed people at the fair in Budel with VR glasses the place where she was found: