Els Borst
Els Borst, a former Dutch health minister and minister of state, was killed at her home in Bilthoven on February 8, 2014. The investigation later focused on Bart van U., who ultimately admitted responsibility. Dutch courts found that the killing was intentional but not proven to have been premeditated, so the offense was adjudicated as doodslag — manslaughter in the Dutch legal classification — rather than murder.
Van U. described a long-standing ideological hostility toward euthanasia legislation with which Borst had been associated. The appeal court treated that stated motive as one factor in assessing criminal responsibility, while also recognizing the major role of his psychiatric disorder.
The killing of Loïs
On January 10, 2015, Van U.'s older sister Loïs was killed in Rotterdam. Van U. also admitted this killing. The prosecution and courts treated it as a separate act with a different personal context, but both deaths were ultimately decided within the same criminal proceedings.
Combining the two incidents in one archive page avoids artificially splitting a single prosecution into multiple case files.
Trial court and appeal
On April 13, 2016, the Rotterdam District Court found both intentional killings proved but concluded that Van U. was completely not criminally responsible because of his psychiatric condition. It therefore imposed compulsory TBS treatment with secure psychiatric care rather than a prison term.
The prosecution appealed. On March 16, 2017, the Hague Court of Appeal concluded that Van U. was strongly diminished in responsibility but not completely without criminal responsibility. The court found manslaughter proved in both deaths and imposed eight years' imprisonment plus TBS with compulsory treatment. The court explained that his psychotic disorder strongly influenced his behavior, but could not be regarded as the only explanation for the decisions to kill.
Institutional aftermath
The Borst investigation also triggered scrutiny of earlier justice-system decisions involving Van U. A later supervisory review by the prosecutor general at the Supreme Court discussed failures in the earlier collection of DNA from convicted persons and cited the Bart van U. case as a catalyst for reforms and quality controls.
Those institutional failures are not treated as criminal responsibility for the killings. They form part of the documented public-safety aftermath.
Timeline
February 8, 2014: Els Borst is killed at her home in Bilthoven.
January 10, 2015: Loïs is killed in Rotterdam.
2015: Bart van U. becomes the defendant in the combined criminal proceedings and admits both killings.
April 13, 2016: the Rotterdam District Court finds both intentional killings proved and orders TBS with compulsory treatment, finding Van U. completely not criminally responsible.
March 16, 2017: the Hague Court of Appeal finds him criminally responsible to a strongly diminished degree and imposes eight years in prison plus compulsory TBS treatment.
Current status
The Dutch judiciary's case summary continues to list the appeal result as the operative outcome: eight years' imprisonment and TBS with compulsory treatment for two counts of manslaughter. No later published reversal of those findings was identified in this review. The case is therefore classified as solved / adjudicated.