Mieke Oort, 21, was killed in an attack inside her apartment in Leeuwarden, a city north of the capital Amsterdam, on Sunday morning.
Her older sister, Danique Oort, described her as “the sweetest, strongest woman I knew.”
“She was my baby sister. We don’t really know how to cope with it,” she told WCVB-TV. “She had just so much more to give and she had a lot of love for everyone.”
Mieke Oort grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts, and had graduated from Winchester High School in 2019. She then moved to the Netherlands to study at the Stenden University of Applied Sciences.
The suspect in her killing, a 27-year-old man, was detained in Germany on Sunday, according to the Leeuwarder Courant newspaper.
Just hours after Oort’s body was found in her apartment, the suspect was taken into custody by German police near the town of Leer after crossing the border, the newspaper reported.
Two men, aged 25 and 30 and both from Leeuwarden, were also injured in the attack.
A friend of Mieke Oort’s told the Courant newspaper that she had met the suspect on dating app Tinder, and that he allegedly killed her out of jealousy.
Danique Oort said the man had apparently been stalking her sister and placed a GPS tracking device on her bicycle. She said the man had also started a fire in her apartment.
“He put a tracker on her bike because in the Netherlands, you bike everywhere,” she told WCVB-TV. “Right now, we’re just trying to process this whole situation and really say our goodbyes, and make the necessary arrangements that we’ll have to do.”
Sadly, this is not the first time a GPS tracking device has been used to allegedly monitor an unsuspecting victim.
In April 2021, Newsweek reported that a man in Altoona, Pennsylvania, was arrested for allegedly stalking his ex-girlfriend after he bugged her vehicle with a tracking device paid for using her debit card.
After they briefly dated between December 2020 and January 2021, Matthew McDonald, 46, allegedly continued contacting the victim, according to Fox8.
In the days since Oort’s killing, messages and tributes have been written under Oort’s most recent post on Facebook.
“Special moments in Cape Cod and Maine. Sad summer has to end with friends and family. Until next summer,” she wrote, alongside pictures from the trip in August last year.
“I’m so sorry for you and your loved ones. Rest in peace, beautiful girl,” one person wrote.
Another added: “How awful, such a radiant being, wishing family and friends a lot of strength.”
And another person wrote: “Rest in peace, wish the family a lot of strength in these difficult times.”
Newsweek has contacted the Oort family for additional comment.
