By a canal in Amsterdam’s red-light district, Bernadett “Betty” Szabo stands in the window looking out at the people passing by. She taps the pane, fogging it with her breath, and the word HELP appears. A chill runs down the spine of transfixed tourists and locals, who suddenly realize what they’re looking at: a hologram of Betty, who was brutally murdered in 2009.
The hologram isn’t a practical joke — authorities hope the likeness of Betty, created with 3D visualization technology, will jog the memory of people who may have information about her murder. Betty was only 19 when she was stabbed multiple times and found by fellow sex workers in her brothel room in the red-light district. Just months earlier, she had given birth to a baby boy. “Fifteen years ago, Betty was killed in a horrible way, and the investigation was never closed,” says Amsterdam police spokesman Olav Brink. But recently, “promising clues” surfaced, and authorities relaunched a large scale probe into the cold case.
The Hologram Has Ignited ‘Several Tips’
The Amsterdam police are confident someone will see Betty’s image in the window and come forward with information that could lead to her killer. “Betty was murdered in one of the busiest areas in Amsterdam, maybe even in the Netherlands. It is almost impossible that there are no people who saw or heard something unusual at the time,” cold case team member Anne DreijerHeemskerk says. “We hope witnesses who may have been afraid before or kept silent for other reasons now have the courage to come forward.”
In the days since the hologram and information about Betty went on display, the police “received several tips,” says Brink. “We find it quite special that Betty can bring attention to her case this way.” The chilling window — titled “Who Was Betty?” also aims to raise awareness about the violence sex workers face. Roughly 78 percent of prostitutes in the Netherlands have been victims of sexual violence, according to a 2018 report by Dutch charities and sex worker rights groups. Sixty percent of them report being physically attacked.
Locals are shaken by the image of Betty in the window. Soyoon Jun lives nearby, “so it was more shocking for me that there were neighbors who are going through this type of horrendous event.” She says the hologram made the murder “real,” adding, “It wasn’t just information that was given out — people could feel the helplessness that Betty would have felt.”
