It's a way of controlling death. A way of gaining the ultimate upper hand. Be the killer for a change. Let someone else be thedier.
2006, Shankar Mokashi Punekar,Awadheswari:
Since other languages are structurally constrained to say who it was who died and since the original leaves the identity of thedier unexpressed, any translation in the target language is going to be incorrect.
(demonstrative)her,their, thelatter's (genitive feminine singular and genitive plural ofdie)
De verdachte heeft zich samen met een vriend, haar dochter endier vriend schuldig gemaakt aan de moord op haar echtgenoot [...] (from a verdict of the Court of Justice at 's-Gravenhage, 2011[1])
The accused (woman) is guilty of having murdered her husband in cooperation with a friend, her daughter andthe latter's friend [...]
Dier is used in a similar way as the possessive determinershaar andhun. It is rare in spoken Dutch, but used occasionally in writing to avoid confusion. Compare:
Zij vertelde van haar dochter enhaar man. ―She told of her daughter andher (own) husband.
Zij vertelde van haar dochter endier man. ―She told of her daughter andthe latter's husband.
The corresponding masculine and neuter singular form isdiens.