Disappearance in Dordrecht
Milly Boele was reported missing by her parents on March 10, 2010. Her disappearance triggered an intensive search in and around Dordrecht. Six days later police recovered her body from the garden of a nearby resident, Sander V., who at the time was a police officer.
V. had presented himself to police and admitted responsibility for Milly's death. The discovery ended the missing-person search and shifted the case into a major homicide investigation that drew national attention, in part because the suspect was both a neighbor and a serving police officer.
The criminal case
Prosecutors charged V. with murder and additional offences connected to Milly's confinement, sexual violence and the concealment of her body. At the 2010 trial, the court imposed eighteen years in prison and compulsory psychiatric treatment, known in the Netherlands as TBS with compulsory treatment.
Both the prosecution and the defense appealed. One of the central disputes was whether the killing legally amounted to premeditated murder and whether the sexual offence charged by prosecutors had been proved.
The Court of Appeal
On June 5, 2012, the Hague Court of Appeal again imposed eighteen years in prison plus TBS. The appeal court found murder proved and also convicted V. of rape, in addition to unlawful detention and concealing Milly's body.
The final sentence remained eighteen years despite the broader conviction because the court took the compulsory psychiatric measure and the defendant's reduced criminal responsibility into account. The case therefore should not be described simply as a repetition of the first judgment: the factual and legal findings changed on appeal even though the prison term did not.
Supreme Court review
V. sought cassation, challenging the reasoning used to establish premeditation and rape. On October 4, 2013, the Dutch Supreme Court rejected those complaints and left the conviction in place. The Supreme Court's public notice states that the conviction for murder, unlawful detention, rape and concealment of the body became final, together with the sentence of eighteen years and TBS.
That ruling is the controlling legal status of the case. The page therefore describes V. as finally convicted rather than merely accused or convicted only at first instance.
Timeline
March 10, 2010: Milly Boele disappears from Dordrecht.
March 16, 2010: police recover her body from the garden of neighboring police officer Sander V.
November 26, 2010: the district court imposes eighteen years in prison and TBS.
June 5, 2012: the Hague Court of Appeal again imposes eighteen years and TBS, while also finding rape proved.
October 4, 2013: the Supreme Court rejects cassation and makes the conviction final.
Current status
The murder of Milly Boele is solved and fully adjudicated. Sander V.'s conviction is final. This page does not speculate about motives that were not judicially established and does not reproduce unnecessary graphic details from the case.