‘Joanna felt like seeing a boyfriend’

Author:
Joost van der Wegen

Harrie Timmerman and Dick Gosewehr worked as detectives for the police squads of the cities of Amsterdam and Groningen. For Panorama magazine they analysed the case of Vincent T., based upon open source information.

Joanna longed for company on the night of her disappearance. The two ex-policemen are convinced of this, considering the text message she sent to a friend of her brother asking him to go for a drink. Profiler Dick Gosewehr: ‘Chances are high it was her who sought contact with neighbour Vincent. That night she felt like seeing a boyfriend.’

According to the detectives Vincent possibly misinterpreted the approach of Joanna. He could have flipped over this, and may have strangled her in a panic. ‘The strangulation fits a ‘gone out of hand’-contact between the killer and his victim', says Gosewehr. ‘The perpetrator does something against the will of the victim. In a response, the victim starts to scream, causing the perpetrator to literally silence her, fearing the possible consequences the exposure of his actions may have.’ Everybody can be a killer, according to the ex-police detective: ‘The majority of murders occur in family surroundings, in a hunch, after a conflict.’

Harrie Timmerman does not find the charge against Vincent very convincing. He thinks it’s a case of manslaughter, not murder: ‘Someone who wants to murder another, brings a weapon. In this case, an object that was already there was suddenly used as such. It’s only murder, when the perpetrator in a second response thinks: now he or she has to die too.’ Dick Gosewehr thinks the killing of Joanna does have a sexual angle: ‘The traces of human salivary are usually not te be found when two people have only drank tea together. Although it is possible the traces were left during the strangulation.’

The disappareance of the pizza and the disposal of the body tells Gosewehr the perpetrator wanted to put the police on a false trail: ‘He has tried to make the impression that she was killed somewhere else, not in her or his flat. This usually happens when the perpetrator fears he will otherwise turn up as a possible suspect. In Vincent’s case, this is a not an unlogical train of thought.’

Copyright Panorama magazine/Joost van der Wegen, Amsterdam, Holland.