Dutch police use hologram to hunt sex worker's killer

In Amsterdam's red light district, a hologram of a woman who was brutally murdered 15 years ago stares back at you through a window. The life-sized rendering of 19-year-old sex worker Bernadett “Betty” Szabo leans forward and breathes on the glass, unveiling the word “help”.

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN

Detectives hope the powerful appeal will help jog memories enough for them to finally solve the cold case murder, after Ms Szabo was found in a pool of blood in the early hours of 19 February 2009. The Hungarian teenager, who loved gardening and excelled at the violin, left her home in Nyíregyháza for Amsterdam aged 18, where she started a new life as a sex worker in the city’s red light district.

The blonde girl, who had a large tattoo of a dragon which snaked across her stomach and chest, later became pregnant and was nicknamed “pinguin”, Dutch for penguin, as she continued to work throughout the pregnancy. Her son was placed in foster care and was never given the chance to know his mother, who was murdered just three months after she gave birth.