On August 31, 2009, the carefree life of Laurie Sieben (42) from Eindhoven came to an end. Her partner and soulmate Basz Zwijsen was shot dead on that day in a house on the Adolf van Cortenbachstraat.
Thirteen years later, she comes up with a book about the darkest day of her life. ‘No magic flowers grow on my shit’ will be presented on 31 August in Eindhoven. She started writing a few months after that fateful night when her soulmate was ripped out of her life forever. “I thought we would always be together,” she says, visibly emotional.
Relation
Unfortunately, that was not to be, while things went so well between the two. Basz and Laurie had reunited seven months before the murder after having been in a relationship before. “He suddenly called and that day we went out to dinner together. That same night we ended up in bed together and that didn’t change until his death.”
With Basz, she had found someone as lively as she was. He owned a pub and rented houses, she ran a flower shop. “In addition, he was the life of the party. You could laugh with him, but he always laughed the hardest at his jokes.”
Fatal evening
She could not have imagined that her soulmate’s entrepreneurial spirit would lead to his death. “We were going to have dinner with friends that night when he got a call from tenants. At first, he wanted to ignore it, but they kept calling. Then we went to the house.”
Laurie is silent for a moment before continuing. “Once in the house, I heard Basz arguing with someone. I ran upstairs and then I saw someone standing behind him with a gun. Immediately I dove down and then I heard a bang. I saw Basz collapse, he was dead.”
Short fuse
Thanks to her, the perpetrators were convicted, but nothing could make up for the loss of her friend. From a lively person, she now became someone with a short fuse. “I had become very cynical. If someone asked how I was doing, I could get very angry. ‘How do you think it is going with someone whose friend was murdered?
In the meantime, things are going in the right direction with Laurie. She especially finds peace in nature. Now she wants to use her book to help other who lost loved ones to make murder a topic of discussion. Something she struggled with for years. “And I want to let people know who Basz was.”
Source: Studio040
Translate: Ayşenur Kuran
