Man who believed Princess Beatrix ordered him to buy murder weapon on trial

A man in the Netherlands is on trial for murdering his mother in a psychosis, and he believed he received orders from Princess Beatrix to buy the murder weapon.

Jesse R. wept in court as he spoke about how he decapitated his mother with an axe. He said, “I am sick and that was fatal for my mother. I took the life of the woman who gave me life.”

The murder took place in April 2025, after Jesse R. had been off his medication for several months. He was angry with his mother and believed she was trying to poison him. The royal family might be able to save him, he believed. In return, they want his mother’s head, which he should put on a spike on their fence.

In the psychosis, Princess Beatrix told him to buy the murder weapon. When his mother returned home, he attacked her with the axe. Afterwards, Jesse R. fled with his mother’s head. He kept her head in a grocery bag and placed it in the passenger seat of the car. He was arrested while he was driving.

The prosecutor is not asking for a prison sentence, as Jesse R. is considered to have had temporary insanity during the murder by the experts. The prosecutor is asking for a hospital order with compulsory treatment.