Dutch Cops Set Up Hologram of Murdered Teen Sex Worker

Dutch police are getting creative, and high tech, in their search for the killer of a 19-year-old sex worker stabbed to death 15 years ago. The Guardian reports that authorities are now displaying a life-size hologram of Bernadett "Betty" Szabo in the windows of a corner house in Amsterdam's Red Light District, where the young Hungarian woman was murdered in 2009, along with large stickers and TV monitors showing the crime scene and a documentary about Szabo.

• Background: CNN reports that Szabo grew up poor in the Hungarian city of Nyiregyhaza, fleeing to Amsterdam at the age of 18 to become a prostitute in the infamous section of the city known for its sex industry. She soon became pregnant, giving birth to a son (he was placed in foster care) in November 2008—three months before she was killed.

• The murder: Two fellow sex workers discovered Szabo's body, after she'd been stabbed dozens of times, on Feb. 19, 2009, in her workstation along Oudezijds Achterburgwal. Her colleagues had become concerned after they hadn't heard her usual music playing, nor seen her in her workroom.
• The hologram: More than a decade after the trail leading to Szabo's killer or killers went cold, authorities decided to try again, kick-starting a publicity campaign that features the life-size visual representation of the teen, described here by the BBC: "Dressed in faded denim hot pants, a leopard-print bra, with a tattoo snaking up her stomach and across her chest, the 3D computer-generated image reaches out and appears to knock on the window to attract attention. She leans forward, breathes on the glass, and writes the word 'help.'"
• Family's thumbs-up: Authorities say they consulted with Szabo's family before setting up her hologram in a Red Light District window. "We are committed to doing this with dignity and with the clear purpose of achieving some form of justice for Betty," says Benjamin van Gogh, coordinator for Amsterdam's Wanted and Missing Persons Team, per the Guardian.
• High hopes: "Betty was murdered in one of the busiest areas in Amsterdam, maybe even in the Netherlands," adds Anne Dreijer-Heemskerk, a member of the Amsterdam police's cold-case team. "It is really almost impossible that there are no people who saw or heard something unusual at the time." A reward of around $32,000 is also on the table.

(More hologram stories.)