Gerrit Jan Heijn (14 February 1931,

Zaandam Zaandam () is a city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad and received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Zaan ...

– 9 September 1987) was a

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

businessman, who was a top manager of

Ahold Koninklijke Ahold N.V. was a Dutch multinational retail company based in Zaandam, Netherlands. Founded in 1887 by Albert Heijn Sr., the company initially began as a single grocery store in Oostzaan and became the largest grocery chain in the ...

until his murder in 1987. His grandfather was

Albert Heijn Albert Heijn (), often abbreviated to AH () and informally to Appie (), is the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands with a market share of 37.7% in 2024. It was founded in 1887, and has been part of Ahold Delhaize since 2016. History Th ...

, who founded the family business, and his older brother was also named

, who was the founder of Ahold. His son, Ronald Jan Heijn, played for the Dutch national

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

team.

Death

On 9 September 1987, he was kidnapped near his

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

Bloemendaal Bloemendaal () is a municipality and town in the Western Netherlands, in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. Bloemendaal is, together with Wassenaar, the wealthiest place in the Netherlands. It is located just west of Haa ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

by Ferdi Elsas. Although Elsas murdered Heijn within a few hours of his kidnapping, he pretended that Heijn was still alive for a long time and asked for ransom. He sent the Heijn family Gerrit Jan's

glasses Glasses, also known as eyeglasses (American English), spectacles (Commonwealth English), or colloquially as specs, are vision eyewear with clear or tinted lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically u ...

and severed

little finger The little finger or pinkie, also known as the baby finger, fifth digit, or pinky finger, is the most ulnar and smallest digit of the human hand, and next to the ring finger. Etymology The word "pinkie" is derived from the Dutch word ''pink' ...

. Elsas was caught when he started spending banknotes of the ransom he received, of which the numbers had been recorded. He served a prison sentence and was freed in 2001. Elsas gave directions to Heijn's body, which was buried in the woods near

Renkum Renkum () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands. The municipality had a population of in and has a land area of . Renkum is situated along the river Rhine. The municipality Renkum is part of th ...

. Gerrit Jan Heijn was

cremated Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a corpse through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India, Nepal, and ...

on 9 April 1988 in

Driehuis Driehuis is a village in the Dutch province of North Holland; part of the municipality of Velsen, it lies about 8 km north of Haarlem and 15 km west-northwest of Amsterdam. History It was first mentioned in 1680 as Drie Huysen, and m ...

. Elsas was hit by an

excavator Excavators are heavy equipment (construction), heavy construction equipment primarily consisting of a backhoe, boom, dipper (or stick), Bucket (machine part), bucket, and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The modern excavator's ...

on 3 August 2009 while riding his bicycle near the town of

Vorden Vorden is a former Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands, about 10 kilometres south-east of Zutphen. On 1 January 2005 the municipality merged with Hummelo en Keppel, Steenderen, Hengelo en Zelhem, t ...

, Gelderland and died in a hospital at

Zutphen Zutphen () is a city and municipality located in the province of Gelderland, Netherlands. It lies some northeast of Arnhem, on the eastern bank of the river IJssel at the point where it is joined by the Berkel. First mentioned in the 11th centur ...

. The 2004 movie '' The Clearing'' is loosely based on Heijn's kidnapping and murder.Contemporary auditing: real issues and cases
p.402, by Michael C. Knapp, (Aug 18, 2008),

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heijn, Gerrit Jan 1931 births 1980s missing person cases 1987 deaths 20th-century Dutch businesspeople Dutch chief executives in the retail industry Dutch murder victims Formerly missing Dutch people Kidnapped businesspeople Kidnapped Dutch people Missing person cases in the Netherlands People from Zaanstad People murdered in the Netherlands

Death

See also

References