Hunt stepped up for suspected abductor of Dutch children
Stabroek News
June 24, 2002
The hunt was yesterday intensifying for Herman Roelf Ploeger, an alleged abductor of two Dutch children, who was spotted in Guyana recently.
Hot on Ploeger’s trail is Dutch criminologist, Jacques Smits and the mother of the children.
Ploeger, 34, allegedly fled the Netherlands exactly one year ago today with his two sons, Timotheus Witold Ploeger and Pascal Roelf Ploeger, despite having lost four separate custody battles in Dutch courts to their mother, Aneta Joanna Szadkowska.
Smits told Stabroek News yesterday that Szadkowska, a Polish national, had been married to Ploeger in 1997 but that the couple got divorced on September 12, 2000 and the Supreme Court in Holland had awarded parental custody of the children to Szadkowska with visiting rights for Ploeger on weekends.
According to Smits, Ploeger had abducted the children twice before during visitation periods and had managed to disappear with them for approximately 4 to 5 months on the second occasion. He said that after the house where the children were being kept was discovered, a team had descended on Ploeger and the children had been returned to their mother. Despite both these matters being taken to the courts, Ploeger was still allowed weekend visitation rights.
Szadkowska, a former bank manager, is travelling with Smits in the bid to locate her children. Speaking on her behalf, as the Polish national speaks little English, Smits said that Szadkowska’s faith in God - she is Catholic - is one of her main sources of strength in keeping up the "fight."
Meanwhile, according to Smits’ sources, which include several law enforcement agencies and Interpol (the International Police Organisation) - Ploeger travelled to Margarita Island in Venezuela, after fleeing the Netherlands, where he is said to have worked on the beach as photographer. Smits said that Ploeger told the children and a number of Dutch citizens on that island that the children’s mother had died of cancer. "On the contrary, [Szadkowska] is in perfect health," Smits pointed out.
Smits said that he (Smits) had gone to Venezuela and had encountered Ploeger at close range, as he had sat next to him in a bar and chatted but at the time there had been no appropriate legal arrangements in place to snare him. Ploeger had somehow gotten wind of what was taking place and had stolen a laptop computer and a 4x4 jeep and headed off to Seaport, Venezuela. He had left Seaport by boat and had moved on to Caracas, where he had gotten a flight to Guyana, arriving here on November 28, last year. In Georgetown, intelligence indicated that Ploeger had stayed at the Woodbine International Hotel from that date to December 3 before checking into the Parkway Hotel in New Amsterdam where he remained until December 10.
Smits disclosed that the Dutch government had written a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The acting Commissioner of Police, Floyd McDonald was subsequently contacted and thereafter, the Head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was also notified.
Interpol has also issued a wanted bulletin carrying photographs of Ploeger and the children with an appeal stating "If you may have seen this person, with or without the two children, please contact your local Interpol agency.."
The criminologist, who has been working on child abduction cases since 1999, expressed confidence that Ploeger will be found and the children returned to their mother.
"Everyone leaves a trace...," Smits declared. He said that investigations have revealed that Ploeger is running short on cash, and further, the children’s mother have possession of their passports which proves that the alleged child abductor is using false documents.
In an effort to close in on Ploeger, the Surinamese authorities have been notified and Smits is working with `backtrackers’ in Corriverton, where he was recently sighted according to information reaching Smits. The criminologist said that he is willing to conduct a door-to-door search in that area for Ploeger.