Van Uytsel (pictured) disappeared after a late-night party in April 2007 near Diest, Flemish Brabant. Six days later her body was found wrapped in plastic in a canal not far from her home. There were no arrests made until 2010, when Ronald Janssens was arrested for a double murder in Loksbergen, Limburg province, where he lives. During questioning, he admitted he had also killed Van Uytsel. It later emerged that he had been a suspect in that investigation from the start, but police had never amassed enough evidence for an arrest.

According to the P Committee, which oversees police matters, Leuven- based investigators in the case made several mistakes in their investigation, in what it called a "chronicle of a failure foretold".

They also refused to cooperate fully with other police
services, including the missing persons' unit and officers drafted in to help. The leader of the detective squad defended his team, protested at the "caricature" portrayed in the report, and the magistrate in charge resigned.

MPs called for a parliamentary enquiry, reinforcing the echoes of the case of Marc Dutroux in 1996, another case in which someone had killed before, been under suspicion by the police but passed over against a background of intra-police rivalries. In the Dutroux case, parliament carried out an enquiry into the investigation before the trial took place, leading to a veritable media circus with record ratings for live sessions, acres of newspaper articles, a mountain of books (including one by a senior member of the commission and one by its president) and outlandish new allegations by attention seekers.

The majority of the parliament is reluctant to see this happen again. The HRJ, as an alternative, at first said it was not competent to look into the case, then changed its mind and accepted to do so, but not before the trial. Otherwise the trial might be delayed, postponed or even prejudiced, the HRJ said.

MPs responded angrily. "The parents and the public alike have the right to go into the trial knowing the truth," said Renaat Landuyt, a Flemish socialist, former member of the Dutroux Commission and his party's judicial specialist.

"People will say there has been only a half investigation," commented Stefaan Van Hecke of Groen!. "There should be no blind spots as to the responsibility of the judiciary."