Chilling CCTV footage has emerged of the asylum seeker suspected of stabbing a 17-year-old to death in Holland prowling around the area less than an hour before the attack.
Dutch cops fear more victims may come forward in Amsterdam after the 22-year-old suspect was arrested over the murder of a teenager, the rape of a woman days earlier and the assault of a third person.
Security footage shows a man garbed in a grey jumper with his face shielded by a hood, cycling towards the intersection of Holterbergweg and Joan Muyskenweg in Duivendrecht around 3:30 on Wednesday morning.
He looked back at two cyclists and then made his way back toward Amsterdam, pausing briefly.
Afterwards, by the industrial estate near Makro, he shone a flashlight and appeared to look at the grass before cycling back towards the city.
When cops arrived at the scene in Duivendrecht at 4:15am, the lifeless body of Lisa was found in a roadside ditch with stab wounds up to her neck – sparking a wave of national fury across the Netherlands.
The murder suspect was arrested for the brutal rape of a woman on August 15 in Weesperzijde, and the assault of another woman on August 10 in the same place. He is of Nigerian descent, according to Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool.
He was detained by a SWAT team at a site run by the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) on August 21 and has been remanded in custody for two weeks.
Police believe the three incidents could be connected and have appealed for more potential victims to come forward.
On Wednesday morning at around 3:30 am local time, Lisa parted with her friends and began her cycle ride home on an electric bike from the centre of Amsterdam to the nearby town of Abcoude.
While on her way home from Leidseplein, she noticed someone following her and she called the emergency 112 number for help.
She was then brutally attacked just south of the secondary school she had just recently graduated from, the Spinoza20First in Amsterdam-Oost.
CCTV footage shows a person, possibly Lisa, cycling at high speed at 3:53 am on the bike path towards the Amsterdam Arena. The cycle route is well-documented and it is unclear when she came across the assailant.
When the police arrived at the scene at 4:15 am after a call from the public, Lisa was found dead with stabs wounds on her body including her neck.
She was discovered in a ditch near the water’s edge along the Holterbergweg, close to the Johan Cruijff Arena stadium and concert venue Ziggo Dome.
Now, a fourth woman has said she was chased by a man on the same day Lisa was stabbed to death near Holterbergweg in Duivendrecht.
‘I was on my way home from work, and when I turned a corner, I saw a man who looked normal, but he started running after me,’ she told De Telegraaf.
‘I thought he was going to hurt me or take my electric bike or phone. Luckily, he didn’t overtake me, but I’m still shaking with fear.’
The violent murder of the teenager has triggered widespread outrage and a nationwide ‘reclaim the night’ campaign, after a Dutch actress and author wrote a poem that went viral about Lisa’s final moments cycling home.
In a post shared on her Instagram, Nienke Gravemade wrote: ‘The red bag. I keep thinking about that red bag. How it dangled from her handlebars as she drove through the night. A night that belonged to her too.
‘I claim the night. I claim the streets. I demand that the fear be lifted.’
Alongside the poem, the author posted the hashtag #rechtopdenacht or ‘right to the night’.
A fundraising campaign called ‘We claim the night’ has raised nearly €400,000 (£346,500) as of Monday morning.
The victim was described by police as having medium-length blonde hair. She was wearing a light grey hoodie, light grey trousers and black Adidas trainers when she was attacked.
She also had a red handbag hanging from the handlebars of her bicycle which was from Cowboy with a light grey frame and black chain lock.
A statement from her grief-stricken family said: ‘Our hearts are broken. We hope we can mourn Lisa’s loss together in peace and privacy. We are immense supported by the love and sympathy from family, friends, and fellow villagers, and we want to express our gratitude for this.’
Dozens of tips have been received but the police are specifically appealing to at least three potential witnesses spotted on CCTV around the time of the attack to piece together what happened to Lisa on her journey home.
The potential witnesses include a scooter rider, the occupants of a light-coloured delivery van, and the occupants of a Biro microcar who were driving on the road near where her body was found.
A large portion of the victim’s cycling route is covered by video, but clear footage of the last seven minutes – between the Breitnertoren (near Amstel Station) and Holterbergweg – are still missing.
‘What happened between the victim’s departure from Leidseplein and the discovery of her body is still unclear,’ the force said in a statement.
‘We are urgently seeking information about her last cycling route and are calling on three specific road users to come forward. Do you know anything, or were you one of them? Contact the police immediately.’
Forensic investigators are using metal detectors and police sniffer dogs to collect evidence at the scene where the teenager was killed by ‘serious violence’, officers said.
Bunches of flowers have been laid on a corner where the tragedy unfolded.
The Mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, condemned the attack: ‘This is every woman’s greatest fear. Thousands of women are rightly demanding their night back.
‘Enjoying freedom should be possible without fear. Safety is not a given. There’s no blueprint for addressing this.’
The village of Abcoude has been devastated by the horrific murder of the teenager.
‘Not that everyone talks about it openly, but you can just see that people know what a terrible thing happened,’ 63-year-old Cees told De Telegraaf.
‘And actually, we still don’t know much, because who’s crazy enough to be responsible for this? Is it someone from here? I hope that will be clarified soon.’
On Sunday, around 500 people participated in a March Against Femicide in Rotterdam in the wake of Lisa’s death, carrying signs such as ‘She had dreams, no grave needed’ and ‘Not all men, but always men’.
The protest, organised by Dutch Feminist group Dolle Mina Rotterdam, has been occurring every week since early August following the killing of two women in two days the previous month – both allegedly by their partners or ex-partners.
Crowds at an Ajax football match at the Johan Cruijff Arena stood in silence in memory of the teenager and held banners with her name on Sunday.
She was a supporter of the football club and her body was discovered near its grounds.
Lisa’s family have asked for her surname and photograph not to be circulated publicly. ‘The loss of Lisa is incomprehensible to her family and has brought them intense grief,’ the victims’ services organisation Names de Familie said.
The new headteacher of Spinoza20First, Kimberley Kaizer, told RTL Nieuws that the school is looking for an appropriate way to hold a memorial for the teenager.
Just before the summer, she had graduated from the pre-university programme.
‘We are waiting to hear what the family’s wishes are; once we have that clear, we will take action. There will be time to reflect together,’ Kaizer said. ‘We want to adequately care for the staff and students, and provide them with space to process this news,’ she added.
Following the attack, hard-right nationalist politicians such as Geert Wilders, the leader of the Freedom Party (PVV), pledged to close the Netherlands to asylum seekers.
The Netherlands faces a snap election on October 29 after Wilders pulled his party out of the Conservative coalition following a dispute about the government’s position on asylum.
He toppled the coalition after accusing ministers of not being strong enough against illegal or criminal asylum seekers, and demanded they commit to a 10-point plan on migration.