MH17 relatives wait for answers a year on

On their son Bryce’s birthday this year, Silene Fredriksz-Hoogzand and her husband Rob went to a Dutch airbase, watched pall bearers solemnly unload seven coffins from a military cargo plane and wondered if they contained parts of the remains of Bryce or his girlfriend Daisy Oehlers.

For many families of the 298 people killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was brought down on July 17 last year over eastern Ukraine, uncertainty and agonising waiting is still woven into the fabric of life a year later.

“Your world stops with a bang”, Silene said at her home in Rotterdam, where flowers and mementoes to Bryce and Daisy still dominate the living room. The couple’s bedroom is still the same disorderly mess it was the day they left for a holiday to Bali. “Everything around you continues. You try to participate, but it’s just hard.”