The stabbing death of a young Hungarian woman, killed shortly after giving birth, has intrigued the police for 15 years.
The hologram of a young prostitute haunts the famous red light district of Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands.
Wearing faded jeans, a leopard-print bra and a tattoo snaking across her stomach and chest, the computer-generated 3D image stretches out and appears to touch the window for attention.
He leans forward, breathes on the glass, generating condensation, and writes the word help (“help”).
The hologram was created to represent Bernadette “Betty” Szabo, a 19-year-old Hungarian woman who was murdered a few months after giving birth in 2009.
His stabbing death intrigued police for 15 years. And now, Dutch detectives from the cold case department are using this innovative technology for the first time in an attempt to solve the crime.
The image of the murdered young woman is projected behind one of the windows of the red light district, along with hundreds of women who continue to earn a living in this notoriously risky industry.
Investigators hope the lifelike hologram can help jog people’s memories and draw attention to the unsolved murder.
So far, Betty’s killer has managed to escape justice, but Detective Anne Dreijer-Heemskerk is determined to change that.
“A young woman, just 19, had her life taken in a pretty horrific way,” he says.
Szabo led a difficult life and his story was marked by hardship and resilience, according to the detective.
She moved to Amsterdam at the age of 18 and became pregnant soon after. She continued to work throughout her pregnancy, returning to work shortly after the birth of her son.
In the early hours of February 19, 2009, two prostitutes went to check on the young mother during a break between clients, because they noticed that her usual music was not playing.
When they entered his brothel, a small room with a plastic-covered bed, a dressing table and a sink, they found Betty Szabo’s body.
She was killed three months after giving birth, the victim of a ferocious knife attack.
The child was placed in an orphanage and will never meet his mother, a fact that motivates investigators.
Although police immediately launched a murder investigation, her killer was never found. They reviewed security camera footage and interviewed possible witnesses.
Most of the people gazing at the scantily clad women behind the neon-lit red windows are tourists. The police suspect that the perpetrator of the crime was from abroad.
They are now appealing to people who may have visited Amsterdam to remember him, offering a reward of 30,000 euros (R$186,000) to encourage witnesses to come forward.
As Amsterdam considers plans to move its famous brothels to an “erotic zone” outside the city controversial, Betty Szabo’s hologram offers a poignant reminder of the vulnerability of sex workers in an area that, despite a raft of security measures , remains dangerous.
Sex workers have expressed fears that removing women who sell sex from public view could expose them to even greater danger.
The fact that such a violent crime could have occurred in one of the Netherlands’ busiest nightlife areas without witnesses coming forward continues to baffle investigators.
In the historic red light district where Betty Szabo lived and worked, the young prostitute’s digital presence reminds passers-by that her murder has not yet been solved.
Source: Terra
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