Ben Saunders, original winner of The Voice, found dead in lake

Ben Saunders, the winner of the first edition of TV talent show The Voice of Holland, has been found dead in a recreational lake near Arnhem.

Friends and family of the 43-year-old confirmed his death to the Telegraaf after police recovered a body from the Rijkerswoerdse Plassen at 1.20pm on Tuesday.

His brother, Dean, wrote in an Instagram post with a picture of himself and Ben as children: “My dear little brother died today. I have never felt such pain as I feel now. What a dreadful day for us all.”

Ben Saunders has not been formally identified, but he had several distinctive tattoos and was well known in the Gelderland biker community.

Police said his death was not being treated as a crime. Saunders had been reported missing earlier in the day.

 

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Saunders was born in London and moved to the Netherlands as a child with his English parents. He grew up in the Noord-Holland town of Hoorn before moving to Arnhem, where he opened a tattoo parlour.

His breakthrough came in 2011 when he won The Voice after dazzling judges with his rendition of the Kings of Leon song Use Somebody in his audition.

He and Dean, who won Popstars in the same year, had been entering TV talent shows for a decade, including the contest to represent the Netherlands in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest. In the early 2000s they formed a band called Follow That Dream.

Ben’s winning song in The Voice, Kill for a Broken Heart, reached number 4 in the Dutch Top 40, while his first solo album, You Thought You Knew Me By Now, topped the charts on its release in April 2011.

Health and police troubles

But fame proved to be fleeting as Saunders began to struggle with his health and ran into trouble with the police. He had a spell in hospital with stomach pains and told the Telegraaf he had to use a stick on stage because he suffered from a hernia.

In 2016 he was given a community service sentence for abusing a traffic official and ordered to compensate a café owner for damaging his premises.

Saunders also turned out to be a member of the biker club Satudarah, which was banned in 2020 because of its extensive involvement in organised violence and drug dealing.