The blonde prostitute, with a kind smile and a dragon tattooed on her stomach and chest, brutally murdered when she was 19, has a hologram in the Red Light District. The idea is that the police are still looking for the culprit.
It is “the last attempt” to find out who killed the 19-year-old who died in 2009. And it is a groundbreaking effort. Behind a window, “Betty” is sitting on a bench and asking for help. Or rather, the hologram of the young Hungarian prostitute who was “brutally murdered” in Red Light District of Amsterdam questions those who pass by. The objective is clear: to revive people’s memories: “someone must know more,” says the Dutch police in a statement when launching this new action last Saturday, November 9. “Betty” will remain there for a week, trying to contact whoever passes by.
Fifteen years later, the story of Bernadett Szabó, the Hungarian prostitute, will be in that district. “Although all homicide cases are naturally sad, Betty’s case has many moving aspects,” emphasize the investigators cited by the police.
Dutch detectives are using a hologram of a sex worker who was murdered in Amsterdam 15 years ago, in the hope of finding the 19-year-old’s killer. pic.twitter.com/38pfaSosYT
-Reuters (@Reuters) November 11, 2024
It is about “a young woman of barely nineteen years old, who is taken from her life in a terrible way, three months after having had a child. On the night of February 19, 2009, two colleagues notice Betty missing. They also don’t listen to the music she usually listens to. Initially, “her classmates think that Betty may be having a bad day or that she has already gone home. But “when they run out of clients, around 1:00 at night and go to look for him, they come across a macabre scene. Betty is on the floor in a large pool of blood, stabbed to death in her compartment.”
If his death was “horrible,” killed with several stab wounds, “he didn’t have an easy life either.”
Bernadett Szabó, known as Betty, left Nyíregyháza, Hungary, for the capital of the Netherlands when she was 18 years old. He was born in poor northeastern Hungary, “but despite sometimes difficult circumstances and limited opportunities, he managed to achieve good results at school. He dedicated his free time to gardening and fiddlewith which he won awards,” can be read in the biographical note provided by the police officer.
However, “as Betty grows, she sees more and more differences between her peers and her. You don’t have money to buy things that others can buy. He changed his life abruptly, lost 25 kilos in a short time and went to Amsterdam when he was 18.” And then, “his friendly smile and the large tattoo of a dragon on his belly and chest caught attention.”
During his first year working on the streets famous for cafes and the long “windows” of sex workers, betty got pregnant and continued working during the nine months of pregnancy, and in the period immediately after giving birth. But, “to her sadness,” she did not stay with her son and was given to a foster family. And three months later she was murdered.
Bernadett Szabó emigrated to Holland in search of better living conditions
A “large-scale” investigation was launched. The crime scene, his usual room on Oudezijds Achterburgwal Street, was thoroughly examined and the nearest surveillance cameras were checked. Despite all these efforts, the The authorities could not clarify the homicide. and come to a conclusion about the case, ending up staying on shelves for more than a decade.
Now, the cold case department of the Amsterdam police has announced a “Last effort” to try to find out who killed the 19-year-old girl. The great interest in reopening this case is because it took place in one of the busiest places in the city, says Detective Anne Deijer-Heemskerk. “It is inevitable that someone saw or heard something relevant at that moment,” he adds.
Local authorities also offer a reward of 30,000 euros encourage testimony from potential witnesses who have remained silent for the past 15 years.
In the shop window where she used to be, the police posted several papers explaining the different details of Betty’s case, with images of the crime and her last whereabouts before she was murdered. The most striking element, however, is a hologram made to scale, inspired by young people.
was the First time that the police in the Dutch capital adopt this type of three-dimensional imagereveals the coordinator of the communication team of the Amsterdam researchers, Benjamin van Gogh. “The fact that we’re doing it this way is unique and, frankly, exciting. We want justice for Betty, for her family and for the case,” he emphasizes. Van Gogh claims that all The process was previously approved by their relatives.in order to guarantee that operations are carried out “in the most dignified manner possible.”
The statement released by the Amsterdam police describes the details of this new and final phase of the investigation, such as the exact location of the hologram – Korte Stormsteeg street, nº2 – and also the file corresponding to the case of Bernadett “Betty” Szabó.
Source: Observadora
