| Willem van Eijk | |
| Birthname: | Willem van Eijk |
| Birth Date: | 13 August 1941 |
| Birth Place: | Korteraar (Nieuwkoop) |
| Death Place: | Vught, Netherlands |
| Victims: | 5–8 |
| Country: | Kingdom of the Netherlands |
| Beginyear: | 1971 |
| Endyear: | 2001 |
| Apprehended: | 12 November 2001 |
| Sentence: | Life imprisonment |
Willem van Eijk (13 August 1941 – 19 June 2019) was a convicted Dutch serial killer known as "Het Beest van Harkstede" (The Beast of Harkstede). He was convicted twice for a total of five murders.
Willem van Eijk was born in 1941 in the small village of Korteraar, South Holland, then under the German occupation of the Netherlands. He grew up in a working-class family. His parents had a lot of kids (8 including Willem), which wasn't unusual at the time.[1] During his time at an elementary school in Ter Aar, he was an outcast and referred to as "Dutch; Flemish: Gekke Willempie" (Dutch for "crazy little Willem"), something he later used to justify his outrageous actions. During this time of extreme bullying, van Eijk started to collect morbid items, such as dead insects and dried frogs. He did not enjoy studying and refused to do so. He soon gained notoriety in his home village for his cruelty towards animals; he would enjoy torturing dogs, drowning cats and kicking ducks until they died. When he was 8 years old his brothers described him as 'evil personified'. He had little contact at school and was an outcast. Van Eijk committed petty crimes for a living as his (high) school career did not go well. During this time he started to dream about raping and killing women.[2]
In 1975, van Eijk was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment and TBS. The details of the murders, as revealed during the trial, were so astonishing to the public that several judiciary guards vomited. Psychiatric reports explained that van Eijk had severe childhood trauma as a result of (mostly female) bullying and rejection by women. During his therapy at the Van Mesdagkliniek in Groningen, psychiatrists speculated that his deviant behaviour was the result of brain damage sustained during his birth. However, van Eijk refused any investigations. He was combative about denying treatment out of 'fear of psychic disintegration'. He was seen as one of the hardest patients the clinic had ever had. In 1980, while still in remand, he married his pen-pal Adri. In 1990 he was released and together with Adri, moved into a house in Harkstede. Psychiatrists believed that his relationship with Adri would prevent him from re-offending, but warned that subsequent female rejections could trigger a relapse. The relationship turned out to be a downward spiral for van Eijk.
Between his release and his second arrest, there were eight prostitutes, and several other young women murdered in and around the area of van Eijk's residence. In 1997, van Eijk was a suspect in the murder of Anne de Ruyter de Wildt, and in 2000 for the murder of Marianne Vaatstra; however, DNA tests proved his innocence in these cases. Several years later both murderers of the two women were caught.
Between 1995 and 2001, several other bodies were found. In 1995, the torso of 24-year-old prostitute Antoinette Bont was found in the Winschoterdiep. Other body parts were later found in a sports bag. Two years later, in 1997, the body of 19-year-old prostitute Shirley Hereijgers was found. Around the same time, Jolanda Meijer (35), Hereijger's friend and colleague also disappeared. Several other men were suspected of these killings, but all turned out to be innocent. Van Eijk never confessed to killing these women, but police suspected him. The ground around his house was excavated; however, there were no bodies found. As of 2018, Jolanda Meijer, who disappeared in 1998, remains missing.[3] All three cases remain unsolved.
At the start of the trial, van Eijk was represented by lawyer Willem Anker, much to the astonishment of the relatives of Shirley Hereijgers, as Willem Anker also represented them. When van Eijk was officially declared a suspect in murdering Shirley, Willem Anker dropped his client. After going through a series of other lawyers, van Eijk was sentenced, on 7 November 2002, to life imprisonment for the murder of the last three victims. Van Eijk appealed, but the Supreme Court of the Netherlands upheld the ruling. Van Eijk several times requested clemency, which in the Netherlands can only be given by the head of state, and all of the requests were denied.
In 2016, van Eijk's farm in Harkstede was demolished to make way for the expansion of a new residential area.[4] On 19 June 2019 van Eijk died in prison. The cause of death was not disclosed.[5]