Hologram wants to solve the murder of a sex worker

A hologram of a young sex worker haunts Amsterdam's red light district.

Dressed in faded denim hot pants, a leopard-print bra and a tattoo snaking across her stomach and across her chest, the 3D computer-generated image reaches out and appears to tap on the window pane to attract attention.

She leans forward, breathes on the glass and writes the word “Help.”

The hologram is said to represent Bernadette “Betty” Szabo, a 19-year-old woman from Hungary who was murdered a few months after giving birth in 2009.

Her fatal knife attack has puzzled police for 15 years. Dutch detectives are using the innovative technology for the first time to solve the case.

The image of the murdered teenager is projected behind a window, alongside hundreds of young women who continue to make a living in this notoriously risky industry.

Investigators hope the lifelike hologram will help bring back memories and draw attention to the unsolved murder.

Betty's murderer has so far escaped justice, and investigator Anne Dreijer-Heemskerk is determined to change that: “A young woman, only 19, was ripped from her life in such a terrible way.”

Szabo had a hard life and her story is one of hardship and resilience, the detective said.

She moved to Amsterdam when she was 18 and soon became pregnant. She continued to work throughout her pregnancy and returned to work shortly after her son was born.

It was in the early hours of February 19, 2009, when two sex workers checked on the teen mother during a client break because they noticed her usual music wasn't playing.

When they entered her brothel, a small room with a plastic-covered bed, a dressing table and a sink, they discovered Betty Szabo's body.

She was murdered three months after birth, the victim of a brutal knife attack.

Her baby was placed in foster care and never met his mother – a fact that motivates investigators.

Although police immediately launched a murder investigation, her killer was never found. They searched CCTV footage and interviewed potential witnesses.

Most of the people ogling the scantily clad women behind the red neon windows are tourists. The police suspect that the perpetrator came from abroad.

Now they are urging people who may have visited Amsterdam to think again and are offering a reward of 30,000 euros to encourage witnesses to come forward.

As Amsterdam struggles with controversial plans to relocate its famous brothels to an “erotic zone” outside the city, Betty Szabo's hologram is a stark reminder of the vulnerability of sex workers in an area that remains dangerous despite a range of safety measures.

Sex workers have expressed concerns that removing sex sellers from the public eye could put them in even greater danger.

The fact that such a violent crime could have happened in one of the Netherlands' busiest nightspots without witnesses coming forward continues to baffle investigators.

In the historic red-light district where she once lived and worked, the teenage sex worker's digital presence reminds passersby that her case remains unsolved.