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Netherlands: a “deepfake” to solve a twenty-year-old crime

Audio 03:01

A “deepfake” used to solve the murder of young Dutchman Sedar Soares.

© Screenshot

By: Jean-Jacques Hery

2 mins

The “deepfake” used to solve a 20-year-old crime.

The Dutch police are using this technological means for the first time for a video call to witness.

The face of a teenager killed in 2003 in a parking lot in Rotterdam has been placed over another body.

And it is therefore the victim himself, in a video, who asks those who may have information about the murder to contact the police.

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On the video in question broadcast on Sunday May 22 on a Dutch channel, it is a teenager like any other that we see.

Dressed in jogging, on a badly lit football field, ball under his arm, the young man advances towards the camera to the sound of a little distressing music.

After passing between a hedge of people, relatives, former teachers and football comrades, Sedar Soares drops his football and speaks directly to viewers: “ 

 ”.

Then, his silhouette fades little by little before disappearing.

And it's really disturbing because this boy who seems so alive in front of us is actually talking about his own murder.

Sedar Soares was killed in 2003 while having a snowball fight with friends near a Rotterdam metro station.

For years police believed the teenager had been killed by an angry motorist after being snowballed.

But today, she leans more for a murder linked to a clash between rival gangs… The teenager would have witnessed a drug deal which would have degenerated or then the victim of a stray bullet.

He was in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

By making him "relive" in a way, the Dutch police wanted to play the card of

How did the police go about creating this "deepfake"?

With the consent of his family, the police used a photo of the teenager taken the Christmas before his death.

And she pasted this face on another body.

Images and videos were analyzed by a computer to recreate mouth and eye movements.

This is what allowed the creation of this film, certainly faked, but also moving and disturbing.

Will this world first in the context of a call for witnesses be effective?

This is what the police and the family of Sedar Soares, fully associated with the project, hope.

Since the broadcast of the film, the Dutch police say they have received a dozen testimonies, which they consider very positive, even if they have not yet been able to verify their veracity or their usefulness for the moment.

In addition, a reward of 4,000 euros will be offered to the person who will solve this investigation.

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