CSI Baarle

March 12, 2008 3:16 PM

Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau has been previously mentioned in MeFi. A historical quirk and geographical jigsaw, these days the complicated border criscrossing this Belgo-Dutch town had become little more than a tourist attraction. What happens, however, when a dead body is found, and nobody knows in which country it lies?
posted by Skeptic (13 comments total)

See: Bon Cop, Bad Cop
posted by anthill at 3:34 PM on March 12, 2008

Wait, I know this one: You don't bury the survivors.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:38 PM on March 12, 2008 [8 favorites]

Roosters don't lay eggs.
posted by DU at 3:59 PM on March 12, 2008

Oh my god, why hasn't this been a Law and Order plot yet!? Genius! If they won't use it, I so will write a story based on this.
posted by Del Far at 4:09 PM on March 12, 2008

which side had more of the body on it?
posted by fuzzypantalones at 6:08 PM on March 12, 2008

I so will write a story based on this.

You don't even have to go to Europe for the setting. Presenting the Haskell Free Library and Opera House.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:11 PM on March 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Alas: The case is now fully in Dutch hands because the body was found in the Dutch half of the building, and the main suspect is Dutch.
posted by LogicalDash at 7:25 PM on March 12, 2008

My brother lives in Brussels and he's never mentioned this. We'll have to go have a look next time I'm over there.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:22 PM on March 12, 2008

See: Bon Cop, Bad Cop

Just what I was going to say! It was an amusing movie, and so very Canadian/Canadien.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:13 PM on March 12, 2008

Hey maybe they should get involved in this jigsaw. I'm sure tips would be greatly appreciated from those two countries who obviously know a lot about managing security across borders.
posted by wantwit at 9:44 PM on March 12, 2008

I don't know about that one, but I know it sure gets perplexing when you find a murder victim on the County Line in Nebraska and the head is in one county and the body is in the other. You would not believe the hassle over who had jurisdiction (neither one wanting it). (True story. My great uncle was the sheriff in one of the said counties).
posted by spock at 10:32 PM on March 12, 2008

See: Bon Cop, Bad Cop

In a just world that movie was a remake of an underground Tibetan hit - covering the story of a rookie Chinese detective assigned to cover a cross jurisdictional murder with a grizzled and seriously old school Tibetan detective. The Chinese guy would turn out to be the corrupt son of a high-flying government functionary. It would have been called Bön Cop, Bad Cop.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:47 PM on March 12, 2008

I'm sure I remember reading ages ago about a case in a big city were someone committed suicide by jumping out of a window with a rope around their neck and managed to decapitate themselves. The head and body ended up in two districts as the building was on the boarder between them. The case ended up going to the district with the body (not the head) as they had the larger proportion of the remains.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:39 AM on March 13, 2008