Peter R. de Vries, the Dutch journalist who stood up to crime

The death of Peter R. de Vries, 64, the Dutch investigative journalist specializing in unsolved cases and organized crime, plunged his relatives into sadness on Thursday and affected his compatriots, who considered him a close figure .

Gunned down on a street in Amsterdam on July 6 as he was leaving work at the RTL television network, he was the most famous crime reporter in the Netherlands.

Police investigators do not rule out that the assault is related to the contact between De Vries and the prosecution witness in the

Marengo case,

the largest trial against drug trafficking registered to date in the country's courts.

Faced with the violent death of the informant, the image they had of him remains, a description of his image shaped like this by his children and his partner: “A fighter who said that on his knees he cannot be free and has lived according to his convictions;

we are inconsolable and proud ”.

More information

• Dutch investigative journalist shot dead in Amsterdam

• Organized crime against journalists

The Government highlighted "the courage and the search for justice for the victims" of De Vries. Femke Halsema, the mayor of Amsterdam, thanked him for "his critical spirit of the authorities." His colleagues from the RTL network have vowed to "continue to speak freely about injustices." The National Police Union stressed that, partly thanks to the journalist's work, they now have "a team of unsolved cases in every police station in the country." And in the Dutch capital, the sidewalk next to which he was injured is still strewn with flowers, candles and souvenir cards. A secular altar that has grown like others spontaneously erected in tribute to a famous reporter who was mourned, with the difference that De Vries was a famous person mourned even by some police officers, who have placed bouquets in memory of him.

Peter Rudolf de Vries began his journalistic career at the

De Telegraaf

newspaper

.

He covered as soon as he began a murder that occurred in the town of The Hague, and then went ahead in that field. Over 35 years, he dealt with more than 500 cases - according to the newspaper itself - until he built a good reputation. In 1983, he wrote about the kidnapping of Freddy Heineken, the beer magnate, and later published a book about the event that shocked the country. Heineken was one of the richest men in Europe, and his captors asked for 35 million guilders in ransom (about 25 million euros today). Among the five kidnappers was Willem Holleeder, whose criminal career includes having started a criminal career that includes ordering five murders. Among them, that of his own brother-in-law, Cor van Hout, an accessory to the kidnapping.

De Vries gained the trust of his brother-in-law to write a book on the abduction and was criticized for it. The journalist defended that his work had not been compromised due to his closeness to this subject. The story was an editorial success and ended up being made into a movie on several occasions. In 2015, the journalist helped Holleeder's sisters, Astrid and Sonja, contact prosecutors to testify. They said their brother was threatening them, and De Vries himself produced an incriminating recording against the gangster, who is serving a life sentence.

Peter R. de Vries, crime reporter,

is the title of the television show he directed for 17 years. One of its broadcasts, dedicated to the 2005 disappearance of the American student Natalee Holloway on the Caribbean island of Aruba (belonging to the Netherlands), was followed by seven million people. The young Dutchman Joran van der Sloot admitted that he knew her and knew how the young woman got lost, according to some recordings held by the reporter, when she had declared otherwise to the police. Sentenced to 28 years in prison in Peru for the death of another girl, the suspect remains related to the first case, still unsolved.

Another high-profile matter on which the journalist shed light was the acquittal of two men who were imprisoned for seven years for the murder of Christel Ambrosius, a 23-year-old woman found dead in her home in 1994. It is one of the biggest judicial errors of the history in the Netherlands, because both convicts were innocent and later received compensation of 900,000 euros.

The journalist's perseverance helped clarify what happened, and another man ended up in prison for the woman's death.

Support to families

What happened to Nikki Verstappen, an 11-year-old boy found dead in 1998 in a forest with signs of abuse, is yet another example of his tenacity. De Vries advised the family during a large-scale investigation in 2017 of DNA samples that found a suspect, Jos Brech. Arrested in Barcelona in 2018, he was sentenced in 2020 to 12 and a half years in prison for abusing and murdering the minor. The conviction has been appealed.

De Vries was shot in the head on July 6 on a busy street in Amsterdam. He had said that Ridouan Taghi, the main accused of drug trafficking in the Marengo trial, had threatened him, but preferred to work without protection. It is unclear if he ever had it. Overwhelmed, several families who received his support throughout his career consider him a "friend forever."