Along a canal in Amsterdam’s red light district, one of the “window women” is actually a hologram of a sex worker who Dutch police hope will help solve a gruesome murder committed in 2009.
Looking at passers-by through a frame, the human-sized image of Bernadett Szabo, known as Betty, taps the window and fogs it with her breath, the word “Help” in English. French) appearing on the screen.
“Fifteen years ago, Betty was killed in a horrible way, and the investigation was never closed,” Amsterdam police spokesman Olav Brink told AFP.
Of Hungarian origin, Betty was brutally stabbed at the age of 19 in the workroom of her brothel, in the De Wallen district, also commonly known as the red light district, just a few months after giving birth to her child.
Despite a major police investigation, the case was never elucidated. However, during an examination, police found “promising clues in the investigation” and decided to reopen the case, Brink said.
Using 3D viewing technology, police hope Betty’s likeness will encourage people who may have information about the murder to come forward with it.
– “Shocking” –
“There are still people who know what happened to Betty,” said Mr. Brink, who hopes that, 15 years later, “people feel freer to share information with the police.”
The initiative also aims to raise public awareness of the violence suffered by sex workers.
According to a 2018 report by Dutch charities and sex workers’ rights groups, around 78% of sex workers in the Netherlands have experienced sexual violence and 60% of them reported having suffered physical violence.
And fears of violence grew during the Covid-19 pandemic, when loss of income forced some sex workers to continue working illegally and reduced their ability to report crimes to police.
In the week since the hologram and accompanying information about Betty were exposed, police have noted “that a lot of people are talking about it.”
In this neighborhood where many women gaze at passers-by through red-lit windows, groups of locals and visitors stop and start conversations about this particular exhibit, titled “Who Was Betty?”
Theo, 80 years old, lives near Amsterdam, “came specially” to see this project after learning of its existence in the press.
Soyoon Jun, 34, lives near the red light district and found it “shocking (…) to have neighbors who experience this type of horrible event”. For him, who works at a Christian charity, the hologram “made things real” because “it wasn’t just information given” and people can feel Betty’s “helplessness”.
The police have already “received several tips thanks to the campaign”, Mr. Brink confirmed to AFP. However, she has not yet received the “golden pipe”, which comes with a reward of 30,000 euros ($31,600).
– Move the neighborhood –
The hologram was placed in De Wallen because the area is “one of the busiest places in Amsterdam and probably in the whole Netherlands”, Mr Brink said.
But the face of the district could change in the future, with the local executive planning to move the red light district to a purpose-built center in the south of the city, in the hope of reducing petty crime and tourist attendance in this area.
Tens of thousands of residents and sex workers oppose the plan and are instead calling for better crowd control and surveillance in the existing neighborhood.
Miranda K, 57, lives near Amsterdam and said the relocation plan was a “shame” because she felt “safe” in De Wallen.
The new area, located outside the city, would be in a “dark” area, she said. Thanks to this mix of “tourists” and “locals”, she judges De Wallen safer.
aks-ktr/gge
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