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Post by pieter on Aug 1, 2018 0:11:26 GMT -7
Last years I heard several of these family drama stories in the Netherands, other European countries, but also in the USA. It is sad when husbands are so desperate that they kill their ex-wives, children and/or new partners.  4, Including Boy, Dead in Murder-Suicide Amid Custody BattleBy The Associated Press
July 31, 2018 Linda Olthof and her six year old son Giacomo JamesNEW YORK — A New York City dad who had ranted online that his life was being destroyed by a trans-Atlantic custody fight fatally shot his 6-year-old son, his ex-wife and his current wife before turning a gun on himself, police said. James Shields opened fire Monday night at his Queens apartment on what his father said was one of the last days of a summer visitation with his son, Giacomo James. James Shields Sr. said his son's ex-wife, 47-year-old Dutch artist Linda Olthof, had been raising Giacomo in the Netherlands and was due to take him back there next week. Shields Sr. said Tuesday that his grandson, known as Jimmy, was " a beautiful boy." He defended his son as a " good man."  The six year old Giacomo James ShieldsShields, 39, wrote in an online post that Olthof only wanted Jimmy in the U.S. for two weeks a year. Shields said that was something " I just can't accept as a father." He posted his custody dispute rant on GoFundMe in April under the subject " Child Kidnapping." Shields, a licensed physical therapist, was armed with a pair of Glock pistols and had seven extra magazines loaded with dozens of rounds of ammunition, police said. He had a permit to keep guns in his residence and the pistols appeared to have been legally purchased, according to investigators.  James Shields, the father of six year old Giacomo James Shields, ex-husband of Linda Olthof, killer and suicide killer.A building caretaker saw the bloodied first-floor apartment through a window while taking out garbage and called 911. A throng of officers, some in heavy tactical gear, responded to the low-rise brick building. Police held off on releasing the name of Shields's current wife, also from the Netherlands, pending notification of her family. The Dutch government said she was 38 years old. Olthof and her son arrived in New York for Shields's visitation on July 21, Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said.  James Shields, Sr., right, sits in front of the building where his son and others were killed in the Queens borough of New York, Tuesday, July 31, 2018. Police said the murder-suicide that left at least four people dead in New York City, may have stemmed from a trans-Atlantic custody fight. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)Shea said Shields' neighbors appeared to know little about him. Police were called last December when someone heard people arguing and possibly throwing things around in his apartment. Shields wrote that Olthof had gone back to the Netherlands while pregnant because she couldn't find work in the U.S. as an artist. He said the move forced him to spend " a fortune" to see Jimmy as a baby. Shields complained that the financial stress of their dispute was ruining his life and destroying his second marriage. " I had the perfect life a few years ago but it has spiraled out of control," Shields wrote. " I desperately need any help you can provide." The posting was pulled from GoFundMe by Tuesday afternoon. Shields, a co-founder of a Manhattan physical and occupational therapy practice, described himself in an online bio as a " wannabe anthropologist" who enjoyed traveling to new and exotic locations. He said volunteering at a nursing home at age 16 led to his career in physical therapy. His business partner, reached by telephone, declined to comment.  A police officer, left, talks with James Shields, Sr. in front a building where there was a shooting with multiple fatalities, including his son, in the Queens borough of New York, Tuesday, July 31, 2018. Police said the murder-suicide that left at least four people dead in New York City, may have stemmed from a trans-Atlantic custody fight. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) Police officers stand in front of a building where there was a shooting with multiple fatalities in the Queens borough of New York, Tuesday, July 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) Police officers stand in front of a building where there was a shooting with multiple fatalities in the Queens borough of New York, Tuesday, July 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) |
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Post by pieter on Aug 1, 2018 0:24:14 GMT -7
In the Netherlands in better times for son and mother               
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Post by pieter on Aug 1, 2018 0:40:01 GMT -7
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Post by Jaga on Aug 1, 2018 3:15:13 GMT -7
Pieter,
very sad story, especially since it involves kids. Cross-cultural and long-distance relationships cause extra stress and financial difficulties.
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Post by karl on Aug 1, 2018 7:41:20 GMT -7
Pieter
Terrible situation of stress upon both parents and emotions taking over rational thinking. Such situations is seems, for others unenvolved as not understandable, but to those under these conditions, the unthinkable becomes action. And, this action resulted in the death of an entire family.
Karl
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Post by pieter on Aug 1, 2018 11:01:32 GMT -7
Jaga and Karl,
I have to admid that this case touched me very personally in a subjective way because the mother and arist Linda Olthof is a typical Dutch blond. She looked so extremely similar to a former blond Dutch female radio colleague in Arnhem that I was nearly in shock when I first saw the news and the images. Only when I read the name Linda Olthof I knew she is (was) someone else. She also looks like a mutual friend from my sister and me too and like some other Dutch women I know. Something in the way she looks, how she hold her boy, her facial feautures, her tall and slender figure is like some Dutch women of her age can be. I am speaking in a quintessential, quality, human, amtospheric and nearly melancholic and emotional sense.
A sort of mix of girlish feminity, boy like coolness and the adult life in her body and drawn face lines. I have to explain, you have the Nordic (North Germanic) Scandinavian blondes, you have the English Anglo-Saxon blondes, you have the Irish blonds, you have the German/Austrian/Swiss German blonds, you have the Slavic blonds and the Flemish blonds (which are close to the Northern-French and Walloon blonds, and the German/Austrian blonds) and you have the typical Dutch and Frisian blonds.
Each blond type of women of these European women and girls are fantastic and equally beautiful, charming, handsome and attractive to me. The same counts for Brunettes, redheads and dark girls and women. But Dutch blondes are different than the other Eurpean blondes. And Linda Olthof had that typical West-Germanic Dutch blondness. Beautiful blue eyes, smile and mother bond with her son Giacomo James Shields. Jaga, you will have that same feeling probably if you see a typical women or man who reminds you of a Polish girlfriend or friend.
John will have that with people he knows from New Hampshire, Polish-American family, his wife and daugther, Kaima will have that with Alaskan people, other American people, women he remembered from his jobs abroad, and the people he met in Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia (Bratislava) and Poland. Jeanne will have that in her part of the North West and her coastal memories. Ludwik and Eric will have theirs.
Karl, will have that with his own memories with Danish, North-German, American, South-American and probably Israeli and South-African women. Linda Olthof just looked very alike Dutch women and girls I knew and know. Maybe that is what triggered me in that tragic news. I am not usually drawn to murder cases or family dramas. The city she lived in was not very far away from Arnhem and the Dutch art world is small. It is likely I was at an art exhibition, Fasion show or party she was too. Her city Deventer is also in the East of the Netherlands.
Cheers,
Pieter
P.S.- Dutch people in looks are close to Norwegian, British and German people, even though they themselves would not like to admid it. Each people want to be unique. If you look at these three peoples, you can add the Danes and Swedes to that, as well the Flemish, Luxemburgian, Walloon and Blond North French people to that. Due to my Polish genes I don't look typical Dutch myself. I hope that the suffering of both Dutch women and the boy in New York was short. I am both sorry for the Dutch and American families that are left behind. Also for James Shields, Senior, who lost his grandson, son and daughter in law.
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Post by Jaga on Aug 1, 2018 20:56:42 GMT -7
Pieter, I agree with all you said. Dutch women are considered the prettiest in the world..... although I agree that beauty is in every culture. I see that English blonds are different than Polish blonds, Dutch blonds...... I think my Ela is a type of Polish-German blond, although she lives in Idaho, so she dresses and have her hair like an American girl. Here in Idaho - there are many Scandinavian types. I understand Pieter's feeling that this woman reminded him some of his female friends My best Polish friend has a daughter who is really a blond beauty - I mean she just took the best features after her mom and dad. I wish I could post her picture, but I should not here. Jaga and Karl, I have to admid that this case touched me very personally in a subjective way because the mother and arist Linda Olthof is a typical Dutch blond. She looked so extremely similar to a former blond Dutch female radio colleague in Arnhem that I was nearly in shock when I first saw the news and the images. Only when I read the name Linda Olthof I knew she is (was) someone else. She also looks like a mutual friend from my sister and me too and like some other Dutch women I know. Something in the way she looks, how she hold her boy, her facial feautures, her tall and slender figure is like some Dutch women of her age can be. I am speaking in a quintessential, quality, human, amtospheric and nearly melancholic and emotional sense. A sort of mix of girlish feminity, boy like coolness and the adult life in her body and drawn face lines. I have to explain, you have the Nordic (North Germanic) Scandinavian blondes, you have the English Anglo-Saxon blondes, you have the Irish blonds, you have the German/Austrian/Swiss German blonds, you have the Slavic blonds and the Flemish blonds (which are close to the Northern-French and Walloon blonds, and the German/Austrian blonds) and you have the typical Dutch and Frisian blonds. Each blond type of women of these European women and girls are fantastic and equally beautiful, charming, handsome and attractive to me. The same counts for Brunettes, redheads and dark girls and women. But Dutch blondes are different than the other Eurpean blondes. And Linda Olthof had that typical West-Germanic Dutch blondness. Beautiful blue eyes, smile and mother bond with her son Giacomo James Shields. Jaga, you will have that same feeling probably if you see a typical women or man who reminds you of a Polish girlfriend or friend. [/i][/quote] |
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Post by pieter on Aug 1, 2018 23:59:50 GMT -7
Dear Jaga, Maybe I am spoiled, but I should appreciate that pretty Dutch blond women and girls more. It may sound weird Jaga, but I am surrounded by them, thousands of them. Lucky me. Yes, Dutch women and girls are pretty and especially in the summer time and spring when they feel happy, free and go outside and sport, walk, run and cycle more than they already do in the winter and autumn. I mean it Jaga, I should appreciate it more and be less interested in foreign exotic beauties. A bad habit of Dutch fellows, because we have 160 nationalities over here in Arnhem and there are a lot fo interesting foreign girls and women between them. Maybe, because I am partly not Dutch and don't look particulary Dutch that my interest in these women comes from that background. But fact is that I like both Dutch women and girls and foreign women and girls. So I have a lot of choice as a poor old bachelor.   Cheers, Pieter P.S.- Thanks for the images you sent me via private e-mail Jaga. Your best Polish friend's daughter is really a blond beauty like you say. She reminds me a little bit of a famous German tennis player of the past. |
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Post by Jaga on Aug 2, 2018 2:30:10 GMT -7
+++Maybe I am spoiled, but I should appreciate that pretty Dutch blond women and girls more+++ I think, it is normal, since we tend to be attracted something different than what we usually see on the streets  |
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Post by pieter on Aug 2, 2018 16:40:54 GMT -7
I probably know why I recognised Linda Olthof, she was a teacher at the theatre department of the ArtEZ, the Arnhem Art Academy. I will probably have seen her in one of the Arnhem theatres, Final exams theatrical plays of theatre students or somewhere else. She was closer by than I thought. The Art Academy is a few hundred meters from RTV-Arnhem, and we have often ArtEZ people in our radio programs. So, maybe it was herself and not the former radio colleague who looked like her.   Neighbors taken aback after death teacher from Arnhem art schoolThe 47-year-old Linda Olthof from Deventer and her son Jimmy were victims of a shooting in New York on Monday. In addition, another Dutch woman (38) was killed, as was the shooter himself. What did her life look like until that fateful moment? The last couple of years Linda Olthof occupied a rental apartment with her son James (nickname Jimmy) in the Assenstreet in Deventer, in a converted historic building (the Mouwiks Houses), and moved when her son grew older to the Sijzenbaan 82, a modest three-room flat further up in the city. She was a teacher at the theater depatment of the ArtEZ Institute for the Arts in Arnhem (Arnhem Art Academy). NeighborHer downstairs neighbor Bronswijk (82) experienced her for years and is very upset about the message. ,, It was a great girl, who did everything for that little boy of hers, she was always there for him, she first did some painting jobs to take care of him and later she got work in Arnhem ". moved to a slightly larger house in Colmschate, where she often went to the Ulebelt with Jimmy, the famous petting zoo. In Arnhem she managed to build up her life a bit further by giving dynamic training courses at the Theater Department of ArtEZ: kinematics (movement theory and practice) to new actors. She herself scored some television novel as an actress, she once played Trudy Prouw in Good Times Bad Times in 1998, a Dutch Soap sitcom, twenty years ago. QueensIt is unclear when she has just returned to Deventer. According to James Shields, the ex-husband who shot her Monday, she had turned away from New York when she was just pregnant with their son. The boy (officially James jr.) Was now six years old, leaving her for 2011 or 2012. They lived together in Astoria (in the Queens quarter) in greater New York. With Shields the frustrations grew when he rarely saw his son. According to the family, there had been exhaustive lawsuits about parental authority. ,, It took me a small fortune to keep seeing him and to come over again and again, "wrote Shields. In April on a crowfd funding page ('' GoFundMe ') to collect $ 30,000 for his further fight. To New York"Linda has been to New York several times with her boy, I know that, she told me", says neighbor Bronswijk. ,, And he was here more often, then he slept somewhere else, because these houses are small, you know ". According to Shields, Jimmy now that he was older, indicated that he wanted to spend more time in America. American media reported that his son was going to spend the summer holidays with him. Shields bitterly wrote in April that the struggle with his ex about their son had "ruined both his life and his new marriage". Dutch womenHe had already remarried, with a "loving wife, Saskia, again a Dutch one." In the crowdfunding, the meter remained painfully at zero. "In his call from April, Shields says that Linda went back to her homeland, because she only always unable to find work as an actress ".  Saskia Shields (her Dutch maiden name is known bu stayes anonymous on request of the family), the second Dutch wife of James Shields, and one of the victimsWhy the bomb could burst like this last Monday has not yet become clear from the police construction, reports the New York Times. It is clear that Shields went through the ribbon in his own apartment on Monday when Linda visited him with their son there. Around nine o'clock he shot Linda, his son and his current wife in the living room to beat himself in the corridor. Deventer as homeFor Linda, even when she lived in New York for years, she was "always a place to return to," she told the Deventer in 2008 as born and bred still proud of the Stentor. ,, In 1997 I was in New York for the first time. I was on vacation with my sisters for a few days. New York has always been a dream of mine and I loved the city. In the Netherlands I had seen a documentary on TV from the Actors Studio, where Lee Strasberg's 'Method' came into existence. I wanted to take a look there anyway and when I got to the small, dilapidated theater there, I knew I wanted to do something here. I would come back here. " P.S. - In Dutch newspapers stories about both women appeared. Stories of neighbours, friends and colleagues. Positive stories, both women seemed to be 'normal' women. The women although both from Deventer didn't knew each other. |
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Post by karl on Aug 2, 2018 18:17:33 GMT -7
Dear Jaga, Maybe I am spoiled, but I should appreciate that pretty Dutch blond women and girls more. It may sound weird Jaga, but I am surrounded by them, thousands of them. Lucky me. Yes, Dutch women and girls are pretty and especially in the summer time and spring when they feel happy, free and go outside and sport, walk, run and cycle more than they already do in the winter and autumn. I mean it Jaga, I should appreciate it more and be less interested in foreign exotic beauties. A bad habit of Dutch fellows, because we have 160 nationalities over here in Arnhem and there are a lot fo interesting foreign girls and women between them. Maybe, because I am partly not Dutch and don't look particulary Dutch that my interest in these women comes from that background. But fact is that I like both Dutch women and girls and foreign women and girls. So I have a lot of choice as a poor old bachelor. Cheers, Pieter P.S.- Thanks for the images you sent me via private e-mail Jaga. Your best Polish friend's daughter is really a blond beauty like you say. She reminds me a little bit of a famous German tennis player of the past.Pieter I must admit my self am some what out spoken at times, and perhaps to the present. I do not believe you are spoilt in a bit. What I think and believe, you are a Dutch man and know your mind and what you like and enjoy. Life is much too short to be second best, but to enjoy that what you are comfortable with. My self am not a self proclaimed expert in the field of hearts and love, and certainly not a romeo by any manner. Just a survivor from former single years. Every women is beautiful, it may be her eyes, her mouth, her lips, her walk, her hair. For nature will insure this. For this reason, it is so easy for a fellow to be confused with her allure. I think though, it is usually best to stay withen your own arena for what you know best. For like with like, will be similar expectations of each other with out the confusion of dis-similar life style. The above I must admit was gained from life experience accompanied by both grief and happy times, but nothing lasting. But, each situation is different, and matters of the heart are only to those that follow the path given to them to do so. Karl |
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Post by Jaga on Aug 2, 2018 22:29:27 GMT -7
Pieter,
I still cannot forget about the story you posted. Such a sweet boy was wanted by both parents, and now all of it is gone. It is close to my heart since it presents extra obstacles for marriages with people from different cultures and countries. If Linda was able to find a job in NYC, maybe they would never split, but she could not.... I know a bit about it.... when you are in a foreign country and you are not one of the locals.
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Post by Jaga on Aug 2, 2018 22:31:18 GMT -7
Karl, you are such a gentleman and I agree with you that women of all types are beautiful. Sorry to hear about your personal life. I was thinking that it is not that easy. At least you had and have your good times also.
+++Every women is beautiful, it may be her eyes, her mouth, her lips, her walk, her hair. For nature will insure this. For this reason, it is so easy for a fellow to be confused with her allure. I think though, it is usually best to stay withen your own arena for what you know best. For like with like, will be similar expectations of each other with out the confusion of dis-similar life style.
The above I must admit was gained from life experience accompanied by both grief and happy times, but nothing lasting. But, each situation is different, and matters of the heart are only to those that follow the path given to them to do so.+++
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Post by pieter on Aug 3, 2018 3:06:07 GMT -7
Pieter, I still cannot forget about the story you posted. Such a sweet boy was wanted by both parents, and now all of it is gone. It is close to my heart since it presents extra obstacles for marriages with people from different cultures and countries. If Linda was able to find a job in NYC, maybe they would never split, but she could not.... I know a bit about it.... when you are in a foreign country and you are not one of the locals. Dear Jaga, I understand you as a mother, wife, friend, as a migrant woman who had also difficulties finding a job, because like Linda Olthof you are not one of the locals. Sometimes we ask ourselves the questions what if? What if my parents had stayed in Gelderland in the town of Apeldoorn (where I lived three months before my parents too me to Zeeland), and did not have moved to Zeeland. Would I have been different, not growing up in a harbour town with rough sailors, harbour workers, dock yard workers, factory workers, fishermen and farmers, but the more upper middle class and highclass subburbs of Apeldoorn, the local hockey club there, a 'better high school' and not my working class friends as a kid and teenager, but upper middle class and highclass friends from Apeldoorn? I will never know, my background is Zeelandish, Vlissingen (Flushing) harbour town now and I live with it, with layers of Amsterdam, The Hague and Arnhem attached to it. Having a migrant (Polish) mother wasn't always easy, but you have to deal with it. Being different than other Dutch local Zeeland kids, and sometimes living inbetween 2 cultures (the one of a Dutch father and the one of a Polish mother). I sociological sense children of 2 parents of different nationality are masters of multicultruralism, diplomacy and adapting to new situations. Maybe my family life was a good preparation for myself being an artist for some time in my life, being a Desk Top Publisher in the communication department (Public Relations) of a Health care group and after that being a radio reporter, radio program producer en presenter and today a TV cameraman, Camera journalist and editor. I am used to cross cultural exchange, tensions and dealing with it in a psychological and diplomatic way. Cheers, Pieter |
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Post by pieter on Aug 3, 2018 3:13:44 GMT -7
Jaga,
I feel close to my German-Danish brother Karl, with whom I share the North-West-European corner background, European liberal mindset, progressive thinking and Continental European mindset. The Danish and Dutch people are extremely similar, close and nearly the same in culture, mentality and mindset. North-Germans are also close to the Dutch in language (Low Saxon, Hoch Deutsch and Frisian), so Karl is very close to me in the European cultural and language family.
I understand his single bachelor being, because I am one myself, due to my job and previous life style. I wish the best for Karl. I am also sorry to hear about his personal life. I was thinking that it is not that easy. At least you Karl and have his good times also. You are right about that Jaga. Fact is that Karl, took more risks and had a more adventerous life than most European and American men. And that speaks in favor of Karl.
The ladies who missed the opporunaty to date with him while they had a chance missed a great opportunity. The same counts for me. We are romantic and good fellows to be around with with experience in life, knowledge, information and we had and still have interesting lives.
I hope Karl has a good life in Mexico and enjoys the culture, climate, his work, the food, the Mecian Spanish language, the Native American Indigenous people and Latino people over there and the other Europeans who are there.
Cheers,
Pieter
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