Het Heulmeisje is born somewhere between 1960 and 1964. The first seven years of her life she lived in an area between the Eifel and the Ruhr. In the year before her death she spent at least four months in the former GDR or elsewhere in Eastern Europe.
Around 1975 she lives in the Netherlands for a year. Prior to her death, she was given one-sided food, later research shows. This can point to extreme poverty, but also to kidnapping.
On October 24, 1976, the body of the Heul girl is found at the then parking lot De Heul on the A12 near Maarsbergen. She’s probably been dead for weeks or months. The girl is 160 cm tall and has auburn hair. Her identity is unknown and she is buried in Maarsbergen.
Ten years later, in 1986, the remains are given the name Monique Jacobse. This girl from De Bilt went missing on April 7, 1975 and after an investigation, the Public Prosecution Service is convinced that she and the Heulgirl are the same person. DNA research does not yet exist. The remains are, under the name of Jacobse, reburied in Maarn.
In 1994 a suspect is arrested for the murder of Monique Jacobse. It concerns Harry A. from Maarsbergen, he teaches at a boarding school nearby. Harry A. confesses to the murder but then retracts that confession. Shortly afterwards he dies, suicide is not ruled out.
In 2006 Monique Jacobse reports to her family. She is not dead, but has chosen to start a new life in Germany.
The remains of the Heulgirl are exhumed and DNA is taken. The age of the Heulgirl is estimated to be about 18 years old. Researchers are having a reconstruction of her head made.
Over the years, several names are mentioned, such as the name of Marjo Winkens in 2008. But DNA testing shows that she is not the Heul girl. There appears to be no match with the DNA of Marjo’s deceased mother. In 2009 the Heulgirl is reburied again, this time in Maarn.
In 2010, the German Bundeskriminalamt conducted a DNA test for the first time in their database of missing persons. There is no match.
In 2012, the police and the judiciary will draw extensive attention to the Heulgirl. The authorities are unleashing a true media offensive with reports and conversations in, among other places,
Search Requested, Bureau Hengeveld and Tros Vermist. In September of that year, attention was also paid to the German investigation program Aktenzeichen XY Ungelöst.
A year later, the remains of the Heulgirl are excavated again. Advances in technology make more possible. New research by the NFI, for example, yields a better DNA profile. She turns out not to have turned 18, but between 13 and 15 years. Isotope research reveals her German ancestry. The police say in the media that an official request for a kinship investigation has been submitted to the police in Germany at that time.
At the end of 2013, there was again a lot of attention for the case. It yields almost a hundred tips. Following those tips, the police are looking for an American soldier. But there will be no breakthrough.
On March 14, 2016, the police announced a large-scale DNA kinship investigation. The Utrecht police officer Wim Perlot says at that time that the German authorities have given permission. This later turns out not to be true.
At the end of 2018, the police confirm that such a large-scale DNA relationship investigation has never been started. On April 8, 2022, the police say again that the kinship investigation has started, but that also turns out to be incorrect, the Public Prosecution Service says that the Judge Commissioner must first give permission.