A pathologist has offered to carry out a post mortem examination on a 16-year-old girl who was hit by a train in the early hours of Sunday morning, after an appeal by the family.

Frank van de Goot said he would conduct the examination after Dascha Graafsma’s family demanded a full investigation into the death. He told reporters he will treat the investigation as a serious crime. The police say the girl’s death was due to suicide, but the family say she was not suicidal.

Van de Goot is quoted by RTL news as saying that these sorts of cases should be investigated much more often. He carried out the post mortem on a 25-year-old woman named Thalita who died in an apparent railway suicide in 2013.

Despite the police view that Thalita killed herself by lying on the tracks, Van de Goot ruled the death was not suicide but could not determine a cause.

‘150,000 people die in the Netherlands every year but the cause of death is not investigated in 97% of cases,’ he said. ‘People say 28.7% of deaths in the Netherlands are due to heart and coronary disease. But how do we know? The deaths are not investigated.’

Dasha was out with friends in Hilversum and disappeared at 02.00 after saying she was going to the toilet. She was hit by a train around a kilometer from the club nearly three hours later and was not wearing a coat. The family also want a full investigation of the missing hours.

Van de Goot is an independent pathologist with ties to the VU university in Amsterdam and a practice in Alkmaar.