There seems to be a small opening for a missing person case from 49 years ago. A member of parliament is committed to making a new search possible for the disappeared Piet Hölskens and Hans Martens from Asten. Brother Jan Hölskens continues to hope that they will be found. “Even after almost 50 years.”
Piet and Hans disappeared in March 1974 after they had had a drink in a pub in Deurne. Then they got into a red Fiat 850 coupe and drove off. They never came back. In 2017, the police received information that they were murdered because Hans had a secret relationship with a married woman. Because Piet was there as a witness, he would also have been murdered. The two would possibly be dumped in the lake De Brink in Liessel.
MP Mark Strolenberg for the VVD is committed to the cause. He will ask parliamentary questions next week to amend the legislation for a new search. At the moment, only professional divers are allowed to conduct such searches at the bottom of the pool. Strolenberg wants the law to be amended so that recreational divers or volunteer divers can also be used to find missing persons.
“I find it indigestible that a murder can become time-barred.”
Brother Jan Hölskens lives almost his entire adult life with the uncertainty of what happened to his brother. “The worst thing is that the perpetrator is still free. I find it indigestible that a murder can become time-barred,” said Jan.
Three years ago, De Brink was searched for days for the duo and the car. It turned out to be a difficult task. The Brink is a lake where sand excavations are done. A possible car would be under meters of sand. When that sand was removed, it kept coming back.
According to measurements, there were seven locations where metal was under a layer of sand. Professional divers searched the two most likely locations. There they found iron beam and a steel wire. Because the search is so difficult and expensive, the police decided not to dig at the five other locations, metal had been found there with a magnometer, but that could not be the car.
“They are eager to search.”
Brother Jan Hölskens questions this. “There was no car at the two locations where they did search. How can they say that there are no cars at those five other locations?” he wonders aloud. “You always hope that they will be found. Even after almost 50 years,” says Jan.
It takes a long breath to amend a law, that will take some time. “That is why we want a transitional arrangement, so that divers can get started,” says Strolenberg: “They are eager to search. If it’s up to me, people will still be diving before Piet and Hans are missing for half a century.”
By law, only professional divers are allowed to search for missing persons. In 2020, the Signi Search Dogs Foundation was fined 12,000 euros because it had dived for missing persons as a volunteer organization and that was not allowed according to the letter of the law. Volunteer divers are eager to help, but don’t have the means to pay such a fine, so there’s nothing they can do.
The police investigation into the case was stopped years ago, because the murders have now expired. Police have made several searches for the two and their car. That happened for the last time in 2020 and with that the police finally completed the investigation at De Brink.
