Career
This family is well known for their holdings in the textile industry. On May 3, 1999, a group of at least four armed Arab men kidnapped the eighteen-year-old van de Kimmenade from his estate in Helmond, Netherlands, tied him and then forced him blindfolded into a waiting vehicle. The abductors took van de Kimmenade to a hidden house in the forests in the southern part of the Netherlands.
Immediately after the abduction several small planes started searching.
After the case got a great deal of media attention, van de Kimmenade was dropped off - probably under the influence of drugs - in a nature preserve owned by a local water board within 48 hours. Number reason was given for his release.
Other famous kidnappings in the Netherlands which look like the Hans van de Kimmenade case are:
Valerie Albada Jelgersma (1987)
Reinier Terwindt (2003)
Claudia Melchers (2005).