DEN BOSCH - "Hey, get a grip," Ad van Boxtel had shouted, according to his neighbors. But the shouts became screams, and not long after, there were cries of distress from the 64-year-old Brabant healer and his blind girlfriend, 30 years younger.

'She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, according to the police'The tumultuous May night in 2005 was to culminate in a gruesome double murder about which the final chapter is likely to be written today and Friday before the Den Bosch court of appeal against the alleged perpetrators.

A day after the heinous crime, Ad van Boxtel was found, lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor of his home on Steve Bikostraat in Den Bosch. His skull had been bashed in, his face and chest overloaded with stab wounds, the larynx broken by strangulation. The body of his girlfriend, the blind and poorly walking Karin Simons (34), lay some twenty kilometers away in a ditch near the Gelderland hamlet of Kerkwijk, where it was discovered by passersby. She, too, appeared to have been strangled. To the criminal investigation team, witnesses described Karin Simons as a "pathetic wretch" and her partner Ad van Boxtel as "a first-class party figure." Since there were no traces of a burglary in it, the investigators looked for the perpetrators in Van Boxtel's circle of acquaintances and friends. This immediately put the drug-addicted couple Brigitta van den A. (38) and Jan B. (44) in their sights. The two had visited the Bossche fence on the evening of the murders, possibly to offer stolen goods.

Justice had their phones tapped, which showed that Van den A. and B. were preparing for a trip abroad. In addition, an observation team saw how they scrubbed their Suzuki car unusually thoroughly. Their motive for the double murder was obvious, as the addicted duo needed money, and at Van Boxtel's place at least 15,000 euros in cash and expensive items, such as a brand new cell phone, would have disappeared. It was also striking that the two suddenly spent a lot of money in the days after the crime while they had previously been constantly in the red.

After the duo was arrested, more incriminating facts came to light. Under the fingernails of Ad van Boxtel was DNA of Jan B. that must have ended up there possibly due to heavy fighting. Moreover, Van Boxtel's van was parked near the residence of Brigitta van den A. and Jan. B. parked and close by, the police found a sock with a watch that looked exactly like Van Boxtel's and a knife with DNA of the murdered Brabander on it. Smell tests on the items proved detrimental to both suspects; a police dog smelled Brigitta van den A. on the knife and in the van and identified Jan B.'s scent during a smell test with the sock with the watch.

In the first instance, both Brigitta van den A. and Jan B. were given 18-year prison sentences. But the two appealed, which will be heard these days before the court of appeal in Den Bosch. There, however, the smell tests may not be introduced as evidence. According to Maastricht criminal lawyer Mr. Serge Weening, counsel for Jan B., it concerns some of the smell tests rejected by the justice system for the dog group Noordoost Nederland, which earlier fell through because of tampering. "The question is whether the prosecution will get this case against my client now," says attorney Weening.

But there is more: near the ditch in which Karin Simons' body was dumped, a tire tread has been secured that is unmistakably from B.'s Suzuki Alto. Moreover, there is an incriminating statement from a witness who was in an arresting tube with Brigitta van den A.. She told the police in great detail from Van den A. how Ad van Boxtel had been murdered in his home and Karin Simons in the Suzuki Alto. So detailed, in fact, that the woman even managed to describe how Simons had let out her urine in agony on the passenger seat in the Suzuki. Traces of this were later found by the NFI on the seat. The relatives of the severely disabled Karin Simons are closely following the criminal trial this week and hope that the alleged killers will not escape punishment. "My sister may have been an unstable and difficult woman because of all her disabilities," says Jacobien, an older sister of the victim, "but Karin did not deserve this terrible death. She had nothing to do with hectoring or other criminal activity. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, according to the police."

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