The Heul Girl (Dutch: ''Heulmeisje'') was a murder victim found on 24 October 1976 at the former ''De Heul'' parking lot on the A12, in Maarsbergen, Netherlands. Her identity has never been established.

Case summary

It was assumed for many years that the naked, leaf-covered body belonged to a missing 18-year-old girl from a neighbouring village. However, that theory was ruled out in 2006 when the missing girl, now an adult, reported to the police. Based on later research on the

epiphyseal plate The epiphyseal plate, epiphysial plate, physis, or growth plate is a hyaline cartilage plate in the metaphysis at each end of a long bone. It is the part of a long bone where new bone growth takes place; that is, the whole bone is alive, with ma ...

s, the Heul Girl would have been 12 to 15 years old at the time of death, putting her date of birth between 1960 and 1965.

Isotope Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their Atomic nucleus, nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemica ...

research on her teeth showed that the girl probably lived between the

Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...

and

Eifel The Eifel (; , ) is a low mountain range in western Germany, eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Com ...

regions of Germany for the first seven years of her life. Around 1975, the child was likely in

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. The year prior to her death, she supposedly stayed in either

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

or the Netherlands. In that year, the girl received particularly poor nutrition, which may indicate extreme poverty or a possible kidnapping. In 2012, a witness stated that in 1976, multiple people saw the girl being "thrown out" by two men between the ages of 30 and 40. In 2013, both the ''Opsporing Verzocht'' program and the German variant '' Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst'' aired episodes on the case. In 2016, the German judiciary gave permission to start a large-scale investigation based on the girl's

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

. This is a joint operation by both countries, in which DNA databases from both countries will be utilised. At the end of 2018, the

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

police confirmed that DNA testing had not started yet. In 2023, the case was part of '' Operation Identify Me'' by

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

to identify 22 unidentified women who were found deceased in the

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 ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

between 1976 and 2019.

References

External links

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Netherlands Police
{{Violent deaths in the Netherlands 1960s births 1976 deaths 1976 crimes Child murder in the Netherlands Deaths by person in the Netherlands Female murder victims German expatriates in the Netherlands German people murdered abroad Incidents of violence against women People murdered in the Netherlands Unidentified murder victims Unsolved murders in the Netherlands Violence against women in the Netherlands

Case summary

See also

References

External links