Michiel van Erp makes a drama series based on the murder of Marianne Vaatstra

Creative Producer Pieter Kuijpers says in a press release: “Willem Bosch (screenwriter, ed.) and I had the idea to make this series for over ten years. I am proud that we succeeded and that it will be shown this fall as the very first Dutch CANAL+ Original. Willem wrote a compelling series about how a gruesome crime tears apart a small village. That is why I am delighted that Michiel van Erp has directed the series. He is the chronicler of the Netherlands. And although the series is inspired by a 25-year-old crime, it is still eerily current.”

Also read: Bauke Vaatstra – “I kept the pressure on through the media”

Shocked
In 1999, Vaatstra was found dead in a meadow near Feankleaster. She had been raped and murdered. In Fryslân, but also in the rest of the Netherlands, people reacted with shock to the brutal murder.

Together with crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, her father Bauke Vaatstra appeared in the media to arrange a large-scale DNA investigation. That finally came in 2012, after De Vries had already devoted dozens of broadcasts of his television program on SBS6 to the case. Jasper S. was eventually arrested after a one hundred percent DNA match, with material found on Marianne’s body.

The series will be shown in the fall.