On January 3, a Brazilian woman died after falling out of a window in Breda. Dutch police concluded it wasn’t a crime — but the woman’s family disagrees.
The woman’s relatives don’t believe that her death was an accident and want the Dutch police to re-open the investigation, reports the AD.
What happened?
On the morning of Friday, January 3, a witness on Breda’s Keizerstraat heard someone shout, “Don’t do this, don’t do this,” she tells the AD.
A resident of De Lange Stallen also recalls hearing some shouting while they were having breakfast with their friend. “It sounded like someone was being attacked,” they say.
Shortly after, the friend went to have a look and found the woman lying on the ground.
Who was the victim?
The woman was later identified as Taiany Caroline Martins Matos, known as Caroline, a 32-year-old Brazilian who had moved to Breda five months ago to live with her Dutch boyfriend.
According to the AD, she had just returned to the Netherlands from spending Christmas holidays with her family in Brazil.
Apparently, she was last seen in public on the night before her death, when she went out with her friends.
No evidence of a crime
On the morning of Caroline’s death, emergency services rushed to the scene, and the Keizerstraat remained closed to traffic for hours.
After a one-day-long “thorough investigation,” however, Dutch police concluded that there was no crime and closed the case.
We krijgen veel vragen naar aanleiding van een incident in Breda op 3 januari waarbij een vrouw is overleden.
— Politie Breda eo (@POL_Breda) January 8, 2025
We hebben na het overlijden grondig onderzoek gedaan, samen met het Openbaar Ministerie. Dat is onder andere uitgevoerd door de specialisten van de Forensische Opsporing.
Translation: We’re receiving many questions following an incident in Breda on January 3 in which a woman died. We conducted a thorough investigation after the death, together with the Public Prosecution Service. This was carried out, among other things, by Forensic Investigation specialists.
Due to the high resonance of the case in Brazil, the Brazilian Consulate in Amsterdam has requested a copy of the police report, writes De Telegraaf.
Dutch police have also contacted the deceased woman’s family in Brazil, to reiterate that the investigation found the death to have been a “fatal accident.”
The family’s version
According to De Telegraaf, the woman’s family not only doesn’t trust the Dutch police’s conclusion but has a very specific reconstruction of the events surrounding Caroline’s death.
They say that her Dutch boyfriend (53) was jealous and possessive, and the two were arguing about the woman’s outing with her friends that morning.
According to them, the woman was running from her boyfriend when she retreated to the bathroom and, eventually, fell off the fourth-floor window.
So far, the Dutch police have not reopened the case.
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Investigate properly! A life has been lost and a criminal is happy out of the jail.