©Alejandro Piñero Amerio via Unsplash
A reassuring message reaches us from Poland: The 14-year-old Dutch boy who had been missing for three weeks has been found in Poland. He is healthy and well and was sleeping under a blanket at a bus stop.
A 14-year-old boy from Apeldoorn had been missing since April 18, 2026. The Dutch teenager, about 1.55 meters tall, was last seen leaving home from the Zuidbroek neighborhood, while footage from a surveillance camera showed that he left on a gray Stella women's bicycle, dressed in a black Nike jacket and sweatpants, with an orange-red backpack. He had also shaved off his blond hair. Maxim had been missing for weeks. While the initial focus was on the Twente region, after several weeks the search turned to Poland and even Russia. And that eventually turned out to be the right track.
The boy is said to have traveled east from Apeldoorn; police even took into account that Russia could be his goal. Why the boy wanted to go to Russia is still not clear, and the police cannot say anything more about it for now, given the secrecy within the investigation. But clues indicated that Russia could be his possible final destination.
It is unclear for now whether the boy wanted to travel eastward all the way by bicycle. It is possible that he was also using the train and also hitchhiking. "You name it. You can do anything along the way: continue cycling, hitchhiking, taking the train, We don't know, every trace is missing," a police spokesman told NOS last week in a comment.
Sleeping under a blanket at Polish bus stop
Police found the Dutch teenager this weekend in the eastern Polish city of Bialystok, near the border with Belarus. He was sleeping under a blanket at a bus stop.
"Maxim's parents are very relieved and happy that their son is found," a spokesman announced on behalf of the family. The parents have spoken with their son by phone and are going to pick him up as soon as possible. "They greatly appreciate the efforts of the police and international cooperation. They want to thank everyone for the tips and involvement."
©Alejandro Piñero Amerio via Unsplash - Illustration image