Stones unturned
Just last month in the United States, the impossible happened: a child who had gone missing 18 years ago turned up alive. The case gave parents of missing children new hope, and missing children’s centre Child Focus plans to bring out new photos of some of the children on its books showing how they might have aged since last they were seen.
News editor Alan Hope has been covering crime in Flanders for 15 years. He digs out his files of unsolved cases
In the case of Liam Vanden Branden from Mechelen, it’s been 13 years. For Nathalie Geijsbregts from Leefdaal, it’s been 18 years. Gevriye Cavas from Molenbeek has been missing for 24 years.
Unsolved crimes have a hold on everyone involved in them, including reporters who write about the cases. In the 15 years I’ve written about crime and justice in Belgium, many cases have been left unsolved. This is a selection from my files, and one older case which seemed earlier this year to be taking a turn toward the light – for a short time, at least.
1984: Missing girl
Lieve Desmet went missing in May of 1984 between her school in Tielt and her home in Dentergem, in West Flanders, at the age of 13. That same evening her bicycle and schoolbag were found abandoned on the road. Her body was found nearly three months later in a field.
The only lead investigators have ever had is the suspicious disappearance of a local café owner, Gustaaf Vande Veire, about six weeks after Lieve’s body was found. He left without a trace, taking his Volvo 144 with him. Two weeks later, the registration documents for the car were found floating in a canal.
A further 25 years later (last February), police searching for a missing man in an unrelated case found a similar Volvo 144 in the harbour at Roeselare. No human remains were found, and it’s not even certain the car is that of Vande Veire.
An episode of the VTM documentary programme Telefacts in May this year brought in “dozens” of tips, police said. However, in the months since then, no new leads have emerged.
Frits Verhaege was an intern with the prosecutor’s office in Kortrijk in 1984; now he is the chief prosecutor for the area. “After all this time, it becomes personal,” he says, launching a new appeal for witnesses. “As the years go by, the chances of a solution diminish, but I still have hope. Different investigators have been occupied by the case, but for me it’s a constant. Due to a combination of circumstances this investigation has followed me and follows me still.”
1996: Police execution
Peter De Vleeschauwer was a gendarme in 1996, before the unification of the police. He worked in Sint-Niklaas, East Flanders, until he disappeared in November 1996 from the gendarmerie barracks. His body was found in Hamme more than a month later. He had been murdered execution style, with a shot to the back of the neck.
The circumstances of the kidnapping were – and remain – suspicious: De Vleeschauwer was on duty alone at night in a barracks where he had control over access. Is it likely he would have admitted someone he didn’t know?
From the start, De Vleeschauwer’s family – in particular his brother Chris – suspected an inside job: Peter had been killed with the collusion of his fellow officers. The case recalled the murder of Simon Poncelet in Mons in February of 1996. It was an almost identical circumstance: police office, night duty, locked door. Poncelet’s death was linked (by his father, who happened to be chief prosecutor of Tournai) to investigations into car-theft rings. A fellow gendarme was later arrested and charged, but charges were dropped for lack of evidence.
The pressure by Chris De Vleeschauwer finally paid off when a court in Ghent this year took the case away from the prosecutor’s office in Dendermonde, which covers the area where the body was found, and put it in the hands of a special investigator. A investigative team will review the entire enquiry.
The latest reports are that they are paying special attention to leads that point in the direction of waste treatment and possibly the dumping of illegal waste. De Vleeschauwer, an active member of the green party (then known as Agalev), was thought to have been investigating in that area. “For the first time, I feel as if we’re being taken seriously,” Chris says.
2007: Murdered teenager
Annick Van Uytsel left her friends at about 4.30 on the morning of Saturday, 28 April, 2007 to ride home on her bike after they had all been at a party in Schaffen in Flemish Brabant. That was the last time she was seen alive.
She sent an SMS to a friend just after 5.00, but when her parents tried to call her at about 6.30, they got no reply. Police later traced the phone to the area of Halen, far from any conceivable route home.
Annick’s body was later found in the canal at Lummen, in Limburg province. Investigators had difficulty determining the cause or time of death, and it seemed unlikely the body had been put into the water at the place it was found. However, one detail offered hope of finding her murderer: Annick’s body, weighted down with stones, had been wrapped in a grey plastic bag of a very particular kind, which police could not at first identify.
In January of this year, the Leuven prosecutor’s office announced a breakthrough. “We have found some grey bags that, while not identical to those in the case, bear a very close resemblance,” spokesman Patrick Vits said. “That has allowed us to determine in which industrial sector the bags are used.” Investigators hoped this find would narrow their search. Further details of what they discover are not being released.
Another possible lead is the man who has now called police five times to report that Annick was killed in a road accident by his friend. The man, calling from public telephones in the area of Mol, says he was called out to help his friend dispose of the body.
Investigators aren’t commenting on the man’s credibility, but they do want to contact him and released voice fragments in an effort to identify him. They also handed over recordings to a voice analyst. “On that basis, we have built up a possible profile of the caller,” Vits said. “But we will not be announcing anything about that. We want people to concentrate on the voice.”
2009: New photos from Child Focus
This week, Child Focus is due to release newly aged photos of some of the 11 children still missing in Belgium.
The organisation’s oldest case is that of Gevriye Cavas, who was only five years old when he was plucked from the street near his home in Molenbeek in Brussels and never seen again. That was in 1985. Since then, there have been no solid leads at all. Child Focus has produced photos showing what he might have looked like when he was 14, 18 and 24. He would now be 30.
Liam Vanden Branden was perhaps the most terrifying disappearance. He was only two and playing at his grandmother’s house when he disappeared, as if into thin air. “My mother-in-law lives on the Zennegat near Mechelen,” Liam’s father Dirk told Humo magazine in 1997. “There are not many houses around, and you don’t see many people. In the beginning I didn’t rule out the possibility that Liam might have fallen into the water.”
The Zennegat is a confluence of the Zenne and the Dijle rivers, with the Nete joining them further up. “By the day after the disappearance, I was convinced Liam hadn’t drowned,” said Dirk. Workers on the quays had been crossing back and forward all day and assured him that the child had not gone into the water.
“In my opinion, Liam was kidnapped,” he said. “In the best case, by someone who couldn’t get over the loss of their own child. In the worst case, by a network. Two weeks ago I dreamed I had found my son, but everyone kept telling me, ‘That’s not Liam!’ I woke up in a cold sweat.”
About the author
