Sixteen years after Nicole van den Hurk was murdered in the Netherlands in 1995, her stepbrother Andy confessed, but only to get the case reopened.
Wikimedia CommonsA portrait of 15-year-old Nicole van den Hurk in 1995, the year she was murdered.
Nicole van den Hurk disappeared from Eindhoven, Netherlands at the age of just 15 on October 6, 1995 — and her body was found in the woods nearby on November 22. For 16 years, police made little progress in solving this horrifying case, until her stepbrother, Andy van den Hurk, suddenly confessed via a Facebook post in 2011.
This shocking admission did soon close the case — but only because it led police to the real killer. Andy van den Hurk’s confession was just a ploy to get the dormant case reopened. His plan soon proved successful when police arrested Nicole van den Hurk’s killer, a man known only as Jos de G.
This is the haunting story of Nicole van den Hurk’s murder and the long road to finally solving it.
The Sudden Disappearance Of 15-Year-Old Nicole van den Hurk In 1995
In 1995, Nicole van den Hurk was a 15-year-old student who was staying with her grandmother in Eindhoven, Netherlands. On October 6, she left her grandmother’s home in the early morning to bike to her job at a nearby shopping center.
But she never arrived.
Police quickly snapped into action and began to search for her. Later that evening, authorities discovered her bicycle by a nearby river. The search continued over the next several weeks but the next clue didn’t appear until October 19, when her backpack was found at the Eindhoven canal. Police continued to search the river, canal, and nearby forests multiple times over the next three weeks, but to no avail.
Personal PhotoNicole van den Hurk was supposed to show up for work in Eindhoven, Netherlands on the morning of October 6, 1995, but she never arrived.
On November 22, seven weeks after Nicole van den Hurk first disappeared, a passerby stumbled upon her body in the woods between the towns of Mierlo and Lierop, not far from her grandmother’s home.
She had been raped and murdered. Police determined that the cause of death was most likely internal bleeding due to a stab wound.
The van den Hurk Investigation Takes A Few Wrong Turns Before The Case Goes Cold
The police had few suspects. However, a local woman named Celine Hartogs soon claimed to know who was involved in Nicole van den Hurk’s murder. She had been detained in Miami for drug trafficking and alleged that the men she had been working for were the ones that were responsible for the murder.
Nicole van den Hurk’s stepfather first supported Hartogs’ story, but upon further investigation, the police determined that her claims were flawed and not worth pursuing.
In the summer of 1996, the authorities briefly arrested the victim’s stepfather and stepbrother, Ad and Andy van den Hurk, but there was no evidence that linked them to the crime. Both were released and ultimately cleared of all involvement.
Andy van den Hurk/Twitter Andy van den Hurk, Nicole’s stepbrother whose false confession eventually helped bring her case to a close.
A reward was offered for any information related to the Nicole van den Hurk murder, but that produced no helpful leads. To make matters worse, the number of detectives on the investigative team was cut. Over the next few years, all the leads dried up and the case went cold. In 2004, a cold case team briefly reopened the case, but once again, failed to make any progress.
With nearly a decade having passed, it was beginning to seem as though Nicole van den Hurk’s killer would never be caught.
Andy van den Hurk’s Shocking Facebook Confession
By 2011, with no resolution and the investigation stalled, Andy van den Hurk had had enough.
So, in a Facebook post he made on March 8th of that year, Andy van den Hurk confessed to killing his stepsister:
“I will be arrested today at the murder of my sister, I confessed will get in contact soon.”
Police promptly arrested Andy van den Hurk, but found again that there was no evidence other than his own confession that linked him to Nicole van den Hurk’s murder. He was subsequently released after only five days in custody.
Personal PhotoNicole van den Hurk disappeared from Eindhoven, Netherlands at the age of just 15 on October 6, 1995.
Shortly afterward, he retracted his confession and said that he only confessed in order to draw attention back to his stepsister’s case:
“I wanted to get her exhumed and get DNA off her. I kind of set myself up and it could have gone horribly wrong. To get her exhumed I had to put steps in place to get her exhumed. I went to the police and said I did it. She is my sister, absolutely. I miss her every day.”
Andy van den Hurk’s plan did work, however. In September 2011, police dug up Nicole van den Hurk’s body for DNA testing.
Nicole van den Hurk’s Killer Is Finally Identified As “Jos de G.”
After they exhumed the body, police found traces of DNA relating to three different men: her stepbrother, her boyfriend at the time of her disappearance, and a 46-year-old former psychiatric patient and convicted rapist known only as “Jos de G.”
Charges were officially brought against Jos de G. for the rape and murder of Nicole van den Hurk in April 2014.
Jos De G./FacebookIn 2018, “Jos De G.” was convicted of both rape and manslaughter in the killing of Nicole van den Hurk.
However, the defense immediately called the DNA evidence into question and pointed out that there was DNA from two other men on the body as well. The defense also suggested that it was possible that Jos de G. and Andy van den Hurk had engaged in consensual sex with Nicole van den Hurk prior to her murder. All of this ultimately led to a lessening of the charges against Jos de G. from homicide to manslaughter.
Justice For The van den Hurk Family After Two Decades
The trial of Jos de G. dragged on for more than two years. Scientists re-analyzed the results to confirm that DNA from the body belonged to Jos de G. beyond a reasonable doubt, but there was no way to prove for sure from this DNA alone that he had been involved in the murder. And though a witness said that Jos de G. had told him that he once killed a young girl, the defendant’s questionable mental stability cast doubt on these statements.
In the end, after 21 years of on-and-off investigation and almost two years in court, Jos de G. was acquitted of the murder charge on November 21, 2016. Instead, he was found guilty of rape and sentenced to five years in prison.
Shortly afterward, the prosecution appealed the manslaughter verdict. On August 28, 2018, the case went back to trial on appeal, and about two months later, the state got their conviction.
On October 9, the manslaughter acquittal was overturned and Jos de G. was sentenced to 12 years in prison, a decision that was upheld by the country’s supreme court in 2020. With that, a quarter-century after Nicole van den Hurk’s murder, the man found to be responsible would indisputably have to serve time for this heinous crime.
After this look at the Nicole van den Hurk case, read up on the chilling disappearances of Jennifer Kesse and Maura Murray.
