A man suspected of involvement in the killing of an 11-year-old Dutch boy 20 years ago has been detained in Spain following an appeal to the public for help tracking him down, police said.

Dutch police said in a written statement that the suspect, 55-year-old Jos Brech, was detained on Sunday and is being held in a Spanish police cell pending his transfer to the Netherlands.

Police distributed photos of Mr Brech on Wednesday, saying that his DNA matches samples taken from the clothes of the boy, Nicky Verstappen.

About a day after Verstappen went missing while at a summer camp in 1998, Brech was stopped by military police close to the scene but was not considered a suspect.

Dutch police said in a written statement that the suspect, 55-year-old Jos Brech, was detained on Sunday and is being held in a Spanish police cell pending his transfer to the Netherlands. File photograph: Police handout.

Family members reported Mr Brech missing in April. A Europe-wide manhunt began after the largest DNA testing programme in the Netherlands’ history finally produced a 100 per cent match.

In the latest twist to a cold case that has gripped the Netherlands since 1998, police in the southern city of Maastricht said on Thursday that more than 200 people had called in following an appeal for tips about the possible whereabouts of Mr Brech, a former scout and playgroup worker.

Described as a survival specialist capable of enduring long periods alone in the wild, Mr Brech was last known to be in the mountainous Vosges region of eastern France, where he has a cabin, and was placed on Europol’s list of the continent’s most wanted fugitives.

Woodland

The body of Nicky Verstappen, who had been sexually assaulted before he was killed, was found on August 11th, 1998 in woodland a few kilometres from the youth camp in Limburg province, where he had been reported missing the previous day.

Mr Brech, who in 1998 lived with his mother 13km from the campsite, was questioned three times during the inquiry - the first occasion just two days after the murder, when he was stopped by police while walking near the scene after midnight.

A photograph of a monument erected in memory of Nicky Verstappen (11), who was raped and killed 20 years ago in the Netherlands. Photograph: Marcel van Hoorn/AFP/Getty Images.

He convinced investigators he was merely taking the late-night air, and while his name was recorded, he was never considered a suspect.

The case has regularly returned to the public eye over the past two decades, with police exhuming the body of an 85-year-old man in 2010 as part of their investigation.

Nicky’s tearful mother, Berthie Verstappen, told a press conference of her relief that “after searching for 20 years, we finally have a name and a face. She thanked a Dutch popular Dutch crime reporter, Peter De Vries, who frequently featured the case in his TV programme.

“Over all these years ? the person who was most important to us is you,” she said. “If it hadn’t been for you, the investigation wouldn’t have moved forward for 19 years.” - PA/Guardian