Video of Sex Worker Murdered in 2009
Still an Unsolved Case... Witness Tips Encouraged
A 3D hologram video of a teenage girl was installed in the 'Red Light District,' an adult industry hub in Amsterdam, Netherlands, drawing the attention of tourists. The protagonist of the hologram is a sex worker who was murdered 15 years ago, and local detectives are still pursuing the whereabouts of the criminal who killed her.
On the 10th (local time), the British BBC broadcast focused on the 'Betty Sabo' hologram installed in Amsterdam's Red Light District. Betty was a woman who lost her life in a murder case near the Red Light District in 2009, and the hologram faithfully reflected the outfit she wore at the time of the incident.
In the video, Betty knocks on the window of the Red Light District or breathes on the window to fog it up, then writes the word 'HELP.' At the time of the incident, Betty was just of legal adult age and was a young woman who had immigrated from Hungary to the Netherlands in search of a new job.
The people who installed this video are detectives from Amsterdam, Netherlands. Since the murder case in 2009, they have been tracking Betty's killer but have had no significant progress for 15 years. It is reported that the detectives installed the hologram to revive the memory of Betty among residents passing through the Red Light District and to receive tips.
Betty started working in the Amsterdam Red Light District in 2008 and reportedly became pregnant shortly thereafter. She gave birth to a son and then returned to work.
However, on February 19, 2009, she was found dead in a bedroom in the Red Light District. Her baby was moved to a Dutch foster care facility and reportedly grew up without knowing who his mother was. This tragic incident became the driving force behind Amsterdam detectives pursuing the culprit for 15 years. The police immediately launched an investigation after the incident, but efforts to find the murderer continued to fail.
The culprit was not well captured on CCTV footage, and since most visitors to the Red Light District are foreigners, the investigation has faced further difficulties. The Amsterdam police have also offered a reward of 30,000 euros (approximately 44.8 million KRW) to encourage witness tips.
Meanwhile, the Red Light District is a concentrated area of the sex industry in Amsterdam. The Netherlands legalized prostitution in 2000, and since then, the Red Light District emerged near the canals in the capital city of Amsterdam. At one point, city authorities considered turning the Red Light District into a 'center of the sex industry' and using it as a tourist attraction, but some civic groups criticized whether it was appropriate to approach the sex industry as 'culture.'
Amid this, the Betty Sabo murder case also raised awareness about the safety issues of sex industry workers in the Red Light District. The BBC reported that sex workers in the Red Light District "realize how vulnerable they are despite various security measures" and expressed concerns that "if sex workers become less visible to the public, they may face greater risks."
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