Eleven-year-old Nicky Verstappen disappeared during the night of August 9, 1998, while at a summer camp at the Brunssumerheide nature reserve, near the German border.

His body was found the next evening, close to the camp site.

“Jos B, 55, a suspect in the death of Nicky Verstappen was arrested in Spain on Sunday afternoon. He was taken into custody and will be handed over to the Netherlands,” a police statement issued in Limburg, the southern district in which the boy disappeared, said.

Earlier this year Dutch police launched the country’s biggest ever DNA search, asking over 20,000 men to come forward for testing in an attempt to solve the case.