Peter R. de Vries

Peter R. de Vries (1956) was the best-known crime reporter in the Netherlands for decades. As a journalist of newspapers and magazines, author of non-fiction books and presenter of his television program Peter R. de Vries: Crime Reporter, De Vries had numerous scoops to his name, and covered a long list of high profile cases-many of which also drew attention abroad. In 2008, De Vries was awarded an International Emmy Award in Current Affairs for his coverage of the Natalee Holloway Case. He was accompanied to the award ceremony by Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway.

De Vries was a specialist in cold cases and high profile affairs. His television program helped solve more than a dozen murder cases. He also solved many disappearances and exposed fraudsters, scammers, extortionists and sex offenders. De Vries also brought to light one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in Dutch history. Two men were wrongly convicted in a murder case. De Vries fought eight years for their freedom and justice and made more than 40 broadcasts about the case until he succeeded in 2002. The Dutch Supreme Court acquitted the two innocent men of the murder after a review of the case. The real perpetrator has been convicted.

In 2003, De Vries revealed that royal princess Mabel Wisse Smit had had closer ties to deceased Dutch drug lord and mobster Klaas Bruinsma than she had previously admitted. Wisse Smit’s husband, Prince Friso was second in line to the Dutch throne at the time of the revelations regarding his wife’s past, but was forced to renounce his claim to the throne in the wake of the affair.

Peter R. de Vries was the author The Kidnapping of Alfred Heineken, which has become the number one selling crime book of all time in the Netherlands since its release in 1987. The book tells the story of the kidnapping of the heir and driving force of the Heineken empire from the perspective of lead kidnapper Cor van Hout. De Vries interviewed Van Hout over a period of several weeks and managed to get the inside story from ‘the brain’ of the kidnapping. American production company Informant Media bought the rights of the book and made a film adaption. De Vries was involved in the writing process as a creative consultant. In the summer of 2013, Informant Media announced that Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins (as Alfred Heineken), Jim Sturgess (as Cor van Hout), Sam Worthington and Ryan Kwanten were signed up to star in the movie adaptation, Kidnapping Mr. Heineken (2015).

The kidnapping of Alfred Heineken is one of the many high profile cases de Vries covered. After his coverage of the kidnap in leading Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, de Vries went on to become one of the best known (crime) reporters in the Netherlands. In 1994, De Vries tracked down one of the other Freddy Heineken kidnappers, Frans Meijer, in Paraguay. Until De Vries located Meijer, the fugitive had been the most wanted criminal of the Netherlands for more than 10 years.

From 2006 till 2008, De Vries devoted several broadcasts to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, an Alabama college student gone missing on holiday in Aruba, as well as prime suspect Joran van der Sloot.

On 31 January 2008, De Vries stated publicly that he knew what had happened in the Natalee Holloway case. He shared his findings with the Dutch police, stating that he would publicly show this newfound evidence in a special episode of his television program. On February 3, 2008, De Vries broadcast hidden camera-footage showing Van der Sloot’s admittance that he had been present during Holloway’s death. The show was watched by 7 million viewers in the Netherlands and was the most watched non-sports program in Dutch television history. Filmed unwittingly while riding in a friend’s car, Van der Sloot said that Holloway had suffered some kind of seizure while having sex with him on the beach. After failing to revive her, Van der Sloot said that he summoned a friend who loaded her body onto a boat and dumped it into the Caribbean Sea. The Holloway program was sold worldwide and was broadcast in the USA by ABC.

On September 22, 2008 in New York, De Vries accepted an International Emmy Award in Current Affairs for his coverage while accompanied by Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway.

In 2003, De Vries was voted Media Personality of the Year in the Netherlands. In 2008 he won the award for Male TV Personality of the Year.

In 2012 de Vries quit his successful program Peter R. de Vries: Crime Reporter after seventeen years (1995-2012). He later worked as an independent media entrepreneur, and was a frequent guest on talk shows and news programs about crime, politics, sports, media and current affairs.