A 63-year-old man from Zutphen was acquitted on Monday of the murder of Duncan Zwakke in 1989. According to the court, it cannot be proven that he killed Zwakke 36 years ago. The Public Prosecution Service had demanded twelve years in prison.
The police reopened the investigation into the disappearance last year. The 31-year-old Zwakke was last seen on October 17, 1989, in the center of Zutphen. His body has never been found.
A witness had stated that the suspect, together with someone else, killed Zwakke in the basement of his father’s restaurant.
That would have happened in a gruesome way. The limbs would have been cut off from the body, and the flesh would have been removed from the bones. The flesh would have been processed in a specially purchased small meat machine. The blood and flesh would then have been flushed down the toilet.
In both 1989 and 2024, forensic research took place in the basement of the restaurant, but that yielded no evidence. For example, no DNA traces of the victim were found. According to the court, it cannot therefore be proven that the suspect deprived Zwakke “intentionally and with a preconceived plan of life”.
Zwakke was allegedly a major player in the drug market
Zwakke was known as a “hard worker who doesn’t talk much”. But he was also seen as one of the biggest players in the local drug market, writes de Gelderlander.
On October 17, 1989, a friend of Zwakke saw him get into a car with a few other men. That same evening, that same friend would have seen him in a café, where he was “surrounded by dark figures”.
That was the last time anyone saw Zwakke. His family also heard nothing more from him. After the disappearance, several suspects were arrested, including the friend who last saw Zwakke. But due to lack of evidence, he was released.