Student Wytze (18) died after a night out in Groningen. TV program ‘From the World’ tells his story. ‘Alcohol can be seen as a drug’

Wytze Pennink from Bussum had just completed his pre-university education and was going to study law. Not in Leiden like his father and brother; Wytze chose Groningen.

There he immersed himself in student life. He became a member of student association Vindicat, found a room in Pension Dieters on Noorderstationstraat, a student house with nine other boys. With the energetic, playful Wytze, his housemates immediately had ‘a close family feeling’.

Young people died from alcohol or drugs

This is how two of his housemates describe the first weeks of the 2016-2017 academic year. They had a good time together in their house, at Vindicat and in the city center. The young men, just like Wytze’s close family and friends, will have their say in the new BNNVARA program Of the world, that tells the stories of young people who died due to drink or drugs.

“You are on the eve of your life, freedom, staying up as long as you want. It is the best period of your entire life,” says housemate Tommy, more than seven years later.

And then it falls silent for a moment. “If everything had gone normally.”

No trace of Wytze

On October 6, 2016, Wytze Pennink went to Vindicat in his red costume to celebrate the second party evening of the Country Week. The next morning, his roommates discovered that he had not come home. The comforting thought that he would have stayed the night with a friend or a lady faded with each passing hour.

They called him, to no avail. They called his brother, they called people who had seen him that night and when no one could answer the question where Wytze had gone after 6 o’clock that morning, it started to bother him. In the evening panic struck. They shared a post on Facebook. Wanted, it was called, with photos of Wytze. That message was posted all over the city center the next day.

That day, Vindicat made a call to search the city together in the hope of finding Wytze. Hundreds of students responded. The family called in sniffer dogs, camera images were requested, and the police were ready. No trace of Wytze.

‘Alcohol is more socially accepted’

Wytze had been drinking that evening and the night he didn’t come home. The program makers show this: it shows that 98 percent of young people who go out sometimes consume alcohol. A doctor speaks briefly several times. “Alcohol can be seen as a drug,” he says plainly. “Although alcohol is much more socially accepted.”

Wytze’s mother says that he came home from Groningen one weekend. When she picked him up from the train, when she saw how tired and tired he was. How happy above all. “How nice is it when your child spreads his wings and just has the time of his life?” she asks rhetorically.

On the Monday after he went missing, a houseboat resident saw a body floating in the Groningen Diepenring. It’s Wytze.

This is life

Enter the doctor Of the world briefly explains that the shock reaction of a person who falls into cold water is great, especially with alcohol. This means that the chance of reaching shore unscathed is small.

“This is life,” sounds the song by rapper Sef. “And I know this is life/And I don’t know if it will last long/but as long as it’s here/I enjoy it/every day.”

Wytze’s loved ones describe the rawness of the loss and try to put words to the unimaginable fate that befell Wytze. “Be aware that this can happen,” his brother said. “Take good care of yourself, each other. Pay close attention,” his mother concludes.