The Deventer Murder Case

On September 25, 1999, 60-year-old Jacqueline Wittenberg was found dead in her home in Deventer. Dutch courts later found that she had been killed on the evening of September 23. The prosecution focused on Ernest Louwes, her financial adviser. What followed became one of the Netherlands' most heavily scrutinized criminal cases, with acquittal, conviction, retrial, forensic disputes and repeated applications for review.

Initial prosecution

Louwes was prosecuted for Wittenberg's murder. In March 2000, the trial court acquitted him because it did not consider the evidence sufficient. Later that year, however, the Arnhem Court of Appeal convicted him of murder and imposed a 12-year prison sentence.

Louwes maintained that he was innocent. That claim remained central to later review litigation and public debate, but it did not erase the legal effect of the appellate conviction.

The first review and 2004 retrial

In 2002, the Dutch Supreme Court granted a review request and ordered the case to be heard again. The Den Bosch Court of Appeal reconsidered the evidence and, in February 2004, again convicted Louwes of murder, maintaining the 12-year sentence while relying on revised grounds.

The Supreme Court later rejected the cassation challenge to that judgment. A further review request filed in 2006 was rejected in 2008.

Forensic and telecom disputes

The case continued to generate challenges involving DNA and other traces on Wittenberg's blouse, mobile-phone routing and the quality of the original police investigation. In 2014, an advocate general at the Supreme Court agreed to additional investigation in preparation for a possible new review request.

That inquiry lasted years and included work by forensic and technical experts. It closed in May 2022. The advocate general stated that the results did not justify filing an independent review request, although Louwes's lawyers remained free to apply directly.

The 2023 review request

Louwes's lawyers submitted a new review request in October 2022 and supplemented it in 2023. They argued that new material relating to telecommunications, forensic traces and investigative errors created serious doubt about the conviction.

On December 19, 2023, the Dutch Supreme Court rejected the request. It held that the submitted material did not amount to a qualifying “novum” — a new fact capable of creating a serious possibility that the earlier court would have acquitted had it known the information.

Media controversy and an unconvicted third party

The Deventer case became the subject of a major public campaign in which another man was repeatedly identified in the media as the supposed “real” killer. That person was never convicted of Wittenberg's murder. Courts later ruled that prominent public accusations against him were defamatory.

Crime by Region does not reproduce those accusations as a competing factual conclusion. The existence of public controversy is relevant to the history of the case, but an allegation repeated in media is not a substitute for evidence tested in court.

Timeline

1. September 23, 1999
   Wittenberg is killed

   Dutch courts later find that the murder occurred in her Deventer home on this evening.

2. September 25, 1999
   Body discovered

   Jacqueline Wittenberg is found dead in her home.

3. March 2000
   Louwes acquitted at first instance

   The trial court finds the evidence insufficient for conviction.

4. Later in 2000
   Appeal conviction

   The Arnhem Court of Appeal convicts Louwes of murder and imposes 12 years in prison.

5. 2002–2004
   Review granted; conviction reimposed

   The Supreme Court grants review, but the Den Bosch Court of Appeal again convicts Louwes in 2004.

6. 2008
   Another review request rejected

   The Supreme Court refuses a further attempt to reopen the final conviction.

7. 2014–2022
   Additional investigation

   New forensic and telecom work is carried out under the authority of the advocate general at the Supreme Court.

8. December 19, 2023
   Supreme Court rejects new review

   The court finds no qualifying new fact that would justify reopening the conviction.

Current status

Solved / adjudicated. Ernest Louwes remains the person legally convicted of Jacqueline Wittenberg's murder. He served the sentence imposed in the case. His continued claims of innocence and the history of review proceedings are important context, but the final legal status as of the latest verified Supreme Court decision remains a murder conviction.