It will be Monday, October 28th. A perfectly ordinary day for most of you, but not for us, a Dutch family in Amsterdam. Another year has passed for us without Sophia. Our beautiful girl went missing in Murchison Falls National Park on this date in 2015.

Even though nine years have passed, it feels like Sophia was gone a few months ago. I can still see him clearly standing at the check-in desk at Schiphol Airport. He had received his huge backpack from his father a week ago.

He had bought his sturdy hiking boots with me, his mother, a few days ago. Two months later I found myself standing on the banks of the Nile River, taking a photo of one of the boots lying in the tall grass. No sign of Sophia. I had a strong feeling that something was wrong.

After obtaining her medical degree, Sophia decided to take a year off and came to Uganda to work as an intern at Rubaga Hospital in Kampala.

He greatly enjoyed his time there; He completely immersed himself in the city, the people, and the culture, and even learned quite a bit of Luganda. After his disappearance, I met several of his local colleagues.

They all spoke highly of him, praising his openness, his commitment to patients, his willingness to do anything. Including mopping the floors if that’s what it takes.

After the internship ended, Sophia went to explore Uganda with two of her fellow interns before returning home. He disappeared on the sixth day of his journey. The story is that he went to the bathroom and was never seen again.

The initial investigation was not very thorough. It was soon assumed that Sophia had been the victim of an accident, a wild animal, but no remains were ever found.

That day, October 28, 2015, our lives were turned upside down and a desperate search began to find our missing daughter, which still continues. I have made 25 trips to Uganda so far. First, because I wanted to visit my daughter. Secondly, because I need to find my daughter.

I will be back soon for the 26th time. I always hope that this will be my last time and that I won’t end up coming home alone.

We know that, statistically speaking, the longer someone is missing, the slimmer the chances of finding them. But miracles happen, and I believe strongly in them. If nothing is certain, anything is possible.

During my travels, I tracked down witnesses, gathered information, and spoke to many people. Paradoxically, the more information I gathered, the more questions arose.

Communication with the police had been ongoing for a while.

This contact unfortunately ended in the spring of 2022, when a new investigation was launched by the Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID). We were told to give them three months to prepare a report.

Three months passed, six months passed, then a year passed. It was frustrating that he had no idea about the findings of this investigation.

In early October 2023, we finally received a CID report, but this report did not tell us anything new. Many important questions were left unaddressed. It was really disappointing and we felt like we were back to square one.

Finding the truth is never easy, but we must hope that eventually we will get to the bottom of the mystery of Sophia’s disappearance.

For nine years, our daily lives have been grounded in deep suffering and insecurity. And the fear that this could lead to a life sentence and that we would never know where Sophia was. Yes, we know that life goes on, but no, time does not heal all wounds. On the contrary. As time goes by, our wound gets bigger and more painful.

I hear the same things from people in the same situation, most of them in Uganda. No child is more present than a lost child. Your child’s unknown fate bothers you. It is the first thought in the morning and the last thought before bed. If you can sleep.

Unless we have evidence to the contrary, we continue to hold out hope that Sophia is out there and will one day return to us.

People often talk about the power of the maternal instinct. As Sophia’s mother, I feel her presence everywhere. Ordinary things remind me of him.

A mother and her daughter in a store, a young blonde woman on a bicycle, young doctors in white coats running through hospital corridors; It all shocks me.

A harsh confrontation with reality; I don’t walk with my daughter, her bike stops in front of our house, Sophia doesn’t run to the hospital in a white coat. And we don’t know whether he will do it or not.

On those special days, if possible, he is missed even more; his brothers’ graduations and birthdays. That ‘Happy Birthday Mom!’ exactly midnight. We miss his enthusiasm, his creativity, his ideas and initiatives, and his incredible zest for life.

Of course it is not easy to move on, but hope is eternal and we must do everything humanly possible to reach the truth. I am determined to choose every path that comes my way. The only way to find out where you’re going is to start walking. Giving up on Sophia is definitely not an option.

We could use all the help we can get and we are extremely grateful to those who are always there for us and support us in any way they can.

What we can’t use are people trying to make money off of this tragedy by claiming to know where Sophia is.

Of course, there must be more honorable ways to make money. Don’t they realize that rewards are only paid when the missing person is found, like never before?

Sophia’s mysterious disappearance received significant media coverage, including a film made by Dutch public television. You can find it all at: www.findSophia.org.