Dutch cops to question TV quizzer CJ de Mooi over alleged murder of junkie drifter in Amsterdam
Brainiac to be quizzed over the alleged murder of a German drifter found floating in an Amsterdam canal after being bashed on head
EGGHEAD CJ de Mooi is to be quizzed over the alleged murder of a German drifter who was found floating in an Amsterdam canal after being bashed over the head.
Dutch police want to question the brainiac over the death of junkie Norbert Hubert Peter Dichtl, 36, whose bruised body was hauled from an Amsterdam canal in 1988.
The German was one of twelve bodies found in the waterways that year but is believed to be the only victim who was murdered.
Investigator and author Eric Slot, 56, who spent 25 years researching murders in Amsterdam, sent police his file on Norbert when de Mooi made his stunning confession pointing out the similarities.
Eric told The Sun: “A lot of people drowned back then as there were many more junkies and homeless in Amsterdam.
“If you look at what de Mooi said it all tallies with Norbert. He said he hit this man on the head and that he was alive when he fell into the water, that it was a canal and it was near a university.
“So I looked at my murder database and there is only one.
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“If he didn’t make it up then it must be Norbert. If he has made it up then it is an incredible coincidence there is a death in the exact circumstances.
“It could be, of course, that it was a story he has heard from someone else.
“But there are no other murders in Amsterdam that fit what he says - apart from Norbert.
“Mr de Mooi maybe didn’t realise there was a man like me collecting dead bodies in Amsterdam when he wrote his autobiography."
Eric's research lists the dead as including three suicides, seven men who police categorised at the time as not being murder and a victim who was hit by a boat.
Eric added: “I gave police my file on Norbert and said this is probably the guy you are looking for. They didn’t respond.
“I also gave them the reasons why it couldn’t be any of the others.
“I asked for a reason not to publish his name on my website and they couldn’t give me a reason.
“I wonder if they threw the old police file on Norbert away “At the time there were some major crimes including a couple of shootings so police had a lot on at the time.”
The area where Norbert’s body was found, in the water at Nieuwe Herengracht near Wertheimpark, was notorious for junkies, male prostitutes and alcoholics in the 1980s.
Little is known about his life but City Hall records showed he was born in Monchengladbach, Germany, in 1951.
His parents, who would be in their 90s if they are still alive, resided nearby in Dusseldorf.
Records show Norbert moved in Amsterdam in October 1987 and rented a room in a shared third-floor flat in a heavily migrant and crime-ridden area of Amsterdam called De Pijp until his mysterious death.
His landlords, a Belgian woman and German man, have not been traced.
Norbert’s death was reported in the De Telegraaf newspaper two days after his body was found when police launched a murder enquiry.
The report revealed Norbert’s body had been struck with a “blunt obstacle” – possibly a fist – to his head.
And the article stated Norbert “was killed by drowning”.
Eric added: “That all goes with what de Mooi said, that he hit a man and was alive when he fell into the canal.
“Those two things do not occur in many deaths in Amsterdam’s canals.”
Dutch prosecutors said this week they want to question de Mooi in relation to the 12 canal deaths.
De Mooi, real name Joseph Coonagh, sparked the murder enquiry after admitting in his autobiography My Journey From the Streets to the Screen he may have killed a mugger in Holland two decades ago.
In an extract the professional quizzer said he punched the knife-wielding mugger, before throwing him in the canal.
He wrote: "He caught me on the wrong day and I just snapped.
"I fully suspect I killed him. I've no idea what happened to him."
De Mooi, who lives Monmouthshire with husband Andrew Doran, described it as "the one incident in my life I do regret" and "the only outburst of violence I've ever done".
He refused to speak to Dutch police six months ago so a European Arrest Warrant was issued in May.
Cops swooped when he arrived home from filming in South Africa landing at Heathrow on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service said: “We can’t give you more information about the case, because it is sub judice.
“I can only confirm we have issued a European arrest warrant on May 27 this year.
“The European arrest warrant, which is not public, was based on the information in the book of Mr Connagh.
“We wish to question Mr. Connagh about his book ‘My Journey From the Streets to the Screen’, in which he stated that he thought he had killed a man in Amsterdam in 1988.”
The brainiac has appeared on a string of quiz shows including The Weakest Link and 15 to 1 before becoming one of the six main quizzers on BBC quiz show Eggheads.