00:01Marianne Vastra was only 16 years old. She lived in a small town in the northern Netherlands in the province
00:07of Friesland. She had been assaulted and had a deep, long cut across her throat, which was determined to be
00:14the cause of death. According to her parents' account, Marianne had gone out the night before, which was a Friday,
00:21and had gone to a club in the town of Colum, which was the most populated area with the most
00:26things to do.
00:29Marianne's journey began in Colum, where the club was located. Then she crossed Venklooster, on the way to De Westerin,
00:36where her parents' house was.
00:39And on that stretch, between those last two towns, Marianne had been attacked by someone. A man's hair had been
00:46found on Marianne's body.
00:48By December 1999, seven months after the murder, at least 180 men were interrogated, and their DNA was tested without
01:00a single match being found.
01:02More than 13 years had passed since the murder of Marianne Vastra, which was when, in 2012, the authorities decided
01:09to reopen the case.
01:10This decision was made because, by that year, the Netherlands had approved familial DNA searching.
01:19An announcement was made in the media, and between 6,500 and 8,000 people came forward to voluntarily submit
01:26their DNA.
01:28This obviously took months, until the authorities got a match.
01:32What caught their attention was that it was a 99% match.
01:37In other words, it was the killer himself who voluntarily gave his DNA.
01:42This man was 45 years old, and his name was Jasper Staringa.
01:47At the time of the crime, he was 32 years old, and lived 2.5 kilometers from the crime scene.
01:52And he stated that in the early morning hours he had an argument with his father, so he went for
01:57a walk, feeling distressed, which was when he saw Marianne on her bicycle.
02:01His statements about what he did were very disturbing.
02:04He said the following,
02:06I saw her, and I thought she was mine.
02:08She belonged to me.
02:10I'd never had that thought before.
02:12It was like my mind just ceased to be rational.
02:16Another thing Jasper mentioned was that after strangling Marianne, he started to panic because he knew he would go to
02:22prison if he left her alive after what he had just done.
02:25That was when he struck her with his father's, and then with a pocket knife, he stabbed her neck three
02:32times in total, and dumped the body in an open field in the rural area.
02:37He said that for years he was afraid to confess that he wanted to do it, but he never worked
02:42up the courage.
02:43And that, when the authorities made the announcement about the new testing, he said they were going to find him
02:50anyway through relatives in the area.
02:52He was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the murder of Marianne Vastra.
