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Killing of Nicole van den Hurk

SOLVED1995Woods between Mierlo and Lierop, near Eindhoven3 SOURCESUPDATED JUL 2026
Illustrative

Nicole van den Hurk was born Nicole Tegtmeier on 4 July 1980 in Erkelenz, Germany. Her mother, Angelika Tegtmeier, began a relationship with a Dutch man; the family moved to the Netherlands, where Angelika married him and Nicole took his surname. Her mother and stepfather divorced in 1989, and her stepfather was awarded custody of Nicole. In April 1995, Angelika died by suicide in Tilburg. By that autumn, fifteen-year-old Nicole was living with her grandmother in the Tongelre district of Eindhoven.

That October, Nicole was working a seasonal position at the Woensel shopping centre in Eindhoven. On the morning of Friday, 6 October 1995, she left by bicycle for her shift and never arrived. Police recovered her bicycle from the river Dommel that same evening, and her rucksack was found near the Eindhoven canal on 19 October, prompting a search of the canal and its south bank. On 22 November, a passerby discovered her body in woodland between the towns of Mierlo and Lierop. An autopsy recorded a fatal stab wound to the ribs, along with jaw fractures and other injuries to her head and fingers. About a thousand people attended her funeral on 28 November.

The early investigation produced few results. An anonymous caller told police in October 1995 that he could identify the person responsible, but the call was cut short; a recording was broadcast on national television in January 1996 to trace him. Police assessed a separate account from a family friend, then in custody on drug trafficking charges, as unreliable. A magazine offered a reward for information, and in 1996 Nicole's stepbrother and stepfather were both arrested in connection with the case and later cleared. A 2004 cold-case review did not identify a suspect.

In March 2011, Nicole's stepbrother, who had since moved to England, posted a confession to the killing on Facebook and was arrested by British police. He was extradited to the Netherlands but released days later, since the post was the only evidence against him; he later retracted the confession and said he had made it so that Nicole's remains would be exhumed for renewed DNA testing. A new cold-case team took up the investigation, and her remains were exhumed that September to collect fresh DNA samples.

Investigators eventually connected the case to a similarly patterned attack in Valkenswaard in September 2000, in which a young woman was taken from her bicycle and raped at knifepoint; its perpetrator had been convicted in 2001. Comparing his DNA profile to an unidentified profile recovered from Nicole's remains led police to arrest a 46-year-old man, Jos de Graaf — referred to in Dutch media by the privacy pseudonym "Jos de G." — on 14 January 2014. His DNA matched semen recovered from her remains and mitochondrial DNA from a hair found on her jacket; he had previously been convicted of three rapes. De Graaf's trial opened in November 2015 and centered on expert testimony about the degraded, mixed DNA samples, exposed to nearly seven weeks of decomposition before recovery in 1995. In November 2016, he was convicted of rape but acquitted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years' imprisonment; the court cited unresolved uncertainty in the DNA analysis and found that he had been legally insane at the time of the crime. Prosecutors appealed the acquittal, and in October 2018 an appeals court convicted de Graaf of both rape and manslaughter, raising his sentence to twelve years. The Dutch Supreme Court rejected the defense's alternative-contributor theory in April 2020 and upheld the sentence on 16 June 2020.

Key facts

Victims
Nicole van den Hurk
Date
1995
Location
Woods between Mierlo and Lierop, near Eindhoven
Case status
solved

Case timeline

  1. 1980-07-04

    Nicole van den Hurk is born in Erkelenz, Germany, and given the surname Tegtmeier.

  2. 1989

    Nicole's mother and stepfather divorce; her stepfather is awarded custody of Nicole.

  3. 1995-04

    Nicole's mother, Angelika Tegtmeier, dies by suicide in Tilburg; Nicole is living with her grandmother in Tongelre, Eindhoven.

  4. 1995-10-06

    Nicole, 15, disappears while cycling to a seasonal job at the Woensel shopping centre in Eindhoven; her bicycle is found in the river Dommel the same day.

  5. 1995-10-19

    Nicole's rucksack is found near the Eindhoven canal, prompting a police search of the canal and its south bank.

  6. 1995-11-22

    A passerby finds Nicole's body in woodland between Mierlo and Lierop.

  7. 1995-11-28

    About 1,000 people attend Nicole's funeral.

  8. 1996-05

    Nicole's stepbrother and stepfather are arrested in connection with the case; both are later cleared.

  9. 2004

    A cold-case team reviews the investigation without identifying a suspect.

  10. 2011-03-08

    Nicole's stepbrother, then living in England, posts a Facebook confession to the killing and is arrested by British police.

  11. 2011-03-30

    Nicole's stepbrother is extradited to the Netherlands; he is released days later, since the Facebook post was the only evidence against him.

  12. 2011-09

    Nicole's remains are exhumed to collect new DNA samples after a cold-case team resumes the investigation.

  13. 2014-01-14

    Police arrest Jos de Graaf, 46, after DNA from Nicole's remains and the crime scene matches him.

  14. 2015-11-02

    Jos de Graaf's trial opens; prosecutors present DNA evidence linking him to the case.

  15. 2016-11-21

    De Graaf is convicted of rape but acquitted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

  16. 2018-10-09

    On the prosecution's appeal, the manslaughter acquittal is overturned; de Graaf is convicted of rape and manslaughter and sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment.

  17. 2020-06-16

    The Dutch Supreme Court upholds de Graaf's conviction and sentence.

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People

  • Nicole van den Hurk

    VICTIM

    Fifteen-year-old victim; disappeared on 6 October 1995 in Eindhoven and was found dead on 22 November 1995 in woodland between Mierlo and Lierop.

  • Jos de Graaf

    CONVICTED

    Arrested in January 2014 after DNA matched him to the case. Convicted of rape in November 2016 (acquitted of manslaughter at that trial); on the prosecution's appeal, convicted of both rape and manslaughter in October 2018 and sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment, upheld by the Dutch Supreme Court in June 2020. Known in Dutch media by the privacy pseudonym "Jos de G."

Roles reflect public records and court outcomes at the time of writing — supporting citations are on file under Sources.

Places

Woods between Mierlo and Lierop, near Eindhoven

51.4271, 5.6671

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Common questions

What happened to the victim?
Fifteen-year-old Nicole van den Hurk disappeared while cycling to a seasonal job in Eindhoven, Netherlands, in October 1995 and was found dead five weeks later. DNA evidence led to the 2014 arrest of Jos de Graaf, who was ultimately convicted of her rape and manslaughter in 2018, a verdict the Dutch Supreme Court upheld in 2020.
Where did the killing happen?
Woods between Mierlo and Lierop, near Eindhoven.
Who was convicted?
Jos de Graaf (Arrested in January 2014 after DNA matched him to the case. Convicted of rape in November 2016 (acquitted of manslaughter at that trial); on the prosecution's appeal, convicted of both rape and manslaughter in October 2018 and sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment, upheld by the Dutch Supreme Court in June 2020. Known in Dutch media by the privacy pseudonym "Jos de G.").
What is the current status of the case?
Status: solved.
More cases in Netherlands

Sources

  1. ENCYCLOPEDICKilling of Nicole van den HurkWikipedia · 2026-07-12
  2. PRESSContemporaneous coverage — nltimes.nlnltimes.nl · 2026-07-12
  3. PRESSContemporaneous coverage — ed.nled.nl · 2026-07-12

Record history

First published
JUL 13, 2026