jihad 2 girls dead in sewer
Bodies of 2 Missing Belgian Girls Found
Jun 28 6:17 PM US/Eastern
By ED BROWN
Associated Press Writer
LIEGE, Belgium
Police found the bodies of two young sisters Wednesday and said they had been slain and left in a storm sewer after vanishing from an outdoor party in a case that has traumatized Belgians.
A convicted child rapist has been charged in the kidnapping of Stacy Lemmens, 7, and her stepsister Nathalie Mahy, 10, whose bodies were lying about 30 feet apart inside the drainage sewer. Investigators located the spot after an 18-day search, looking under thick undergrowth beside a railroad track in this gritty steel town in eastern Belgium.
"In all our hearts there is a feeling of repugnance, of sorrow and powerlessness," Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said in a televised address to the nation.
"We cannot comprehend what motivates these people."
Abdallah Aid Oud, 39, has been charged in the girls' kidnapping. He was arrested when he turned himself in June 13 but has denied involvement. Aid Oud, of North African descent, was the boyfriend of a waitress in the cafe where the girls were last seen. Police say he was in the area the night they went missing.
He was released from a psychiatric ward in December after serving a second sentence for child-sex offenses.
Liege Prosecutor Cedric Visart de Bocarme said there were no other suspects.
"The next hours and days will tell whether there is proof to link the crimes with the suspect," he told reporters.
The girls' bodies were found just a few hundred yards from the cafe where they had been with Nathalie's mother before heading out to play during a late-night street party. Nathalie's mother _ the partner of Stacy's father _ noticed the girls were missing at about 3 a.m. on June 10 when she went outside to find them.
For Belgium, the gruesome discovery revived painful memories of a series of murders by child rapist Marc Dutroux a decade ago.
A convicted pedophile, Dutroux snatched two 8-year-olds from a Liege street in 1985 and held them for months before allowing them to starve to death locked in a basement while he served time for a minor offense.
Crown Prince Philippe, heir to the Belgian throne, said he was scaling back a trade visit to Moscow as a sign of respect.
"As parents ourselves, we want to express our feelings," he told reporters in Moscow.
"It's a new black day for Belgium," said Elio di Rupo, premier of Belgium's French-speaking Wallonia region.
Scores of mourners placed flowers, teddy bears and white balloons on a bridge over the railroad track near the spot where the bodies were found.
White balloons were the symbol of a campaign that drew hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets of Belgium's cities in the to demand reforms of the justice system after revelations of bungling in the Dutroux case. He was finally sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for a series of murders, rapes and kidnaps.
This time, there were few complaints about the investigation. Hundreds of officers joined the search for the girls, and a nationwide manhunt was launched for Aid Oud shortly after the two disappeared.
Jean-Denis Lejeune, the father of one of Dutroux's victims, 8-year-old Julie Lejeune, drove to Liege to comfort the bereaved parents.
After his daughter's killing, he helped found an agency for missing children. When Stacy and Nathalie disappeared, the group distributed tens of thousands of missing posters with their photographs.
A court was expected to rule soon whether to keep Aid Oud in custody. His lawyers are demanding he be freed, arguing there is no evidence to link him to the crimes.
Results of autopsies also were expected Thursday in the girls' deaths.
In a strange twist, police were studying an anonymous letter received Wednesday by the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf which contained two maps showing where the girls' bodies could be found.
In a report on its Web site, the paper said the maps, sent from Rotterdam, indicated a spot about 1.2 miles from the spot where they were found, but along the same rail line. "We received a letter with a map on it that could be interesting for this investigation, so we've passed it on to our colleagues in Belgium," Amsterdam police spokesman Gerard Vrooland said.
Jun 28 6:17 PM US/Eastern
By ED BROWN
Associated Press Writer
LIEGE, Belgium
Police found the bodies of two young sisters Wednesday and said they had been slain and left in a storm sewer after vanishing from an outdoor party in a case that has traumatized Belgians.
A convicted child rapist has been charged in the kidnapping of Stacy Lemmens, 7, and her stepsister Nathalie Mahy, 10, whose bodies were lying about 30 feet apart inside the drainage sewer. Investigators located the spot after an 18-day search, looking under thick undergrowth beside a railroad track in this gritty steel town in eastern Belgium.
"In all our hearts there is a feeling of repugnance, of sorrow and powerlessness," Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said in a televised address to the nation.
"We cannot comprehend what motivates these people."
Abdallah Aid Oud, 39, has been charged in the girls' kidnapping. He was arrested when he turned himself in June 13 but has denied involvement. Aid Oud, of North African descent, was the boyfriend of a waitress in the cafe where the girls were last seen. Police say he was in the area the night they went missing.
He was released from a psychiatric ward in December after serving a second sentence for child-sex offenses.
Liege Prosecutor Cedric Visart de Bocarme said there were no other suspects.
"The next hours and days will tell whether there is proof to link the crimes with the suspect," he told reporters.
The girls' bodies were found just a few hundred yards from the cafe where they had been with Nathalie's mother before heading out to play during a late-night street party. Nathalie's mother _ the partner of Stacy's father _ noticed the girls were missing at about 3 a.m. on June 10 when she went outside to find them.
For Belgium, the gruesome discovery revived painful memories of a series of murders by child rapist Marc Dutroux a decade ago.
A convicted pedophile, Dutroux snatched two 8-year-olds from a Liege street in 1985 and held them for months before allowing them to starve to death locked in a basement while he served time for a minor offense.
Crown Prince Philippe, heir to the Belgian throne, said he was scaling back a trade visit to Moscow as a sign of respect.
"As parents ourselves, we want to express our feelings," he told reporters in Moscow.
"It's a new black day for Belgium," said Elio di Rupo, premier of Belgium's French-speaking Wallonia region.
Scores of mourners placed flowers, teddy bears and white balloons on a bridge over the railroad track near the spot where the bodies were found.
White balloons were the symbol of a campaign that drew hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets of Belgium's cities in the to demand reforms of the justice system after revelations of bungling in the Dutroux case. He was finally sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for a series of murders, rapes and kidnaps.
This time, there were few complaints about the investigation. Hundreds of officers joined the search for the girls, and a nationwide manhunt was launched for Aid Oud shortly after the two disappeared.
Jean-Denis Lejeune, the father of one of Dutroux's victims, 8-year-old Julie Lejeune, drove to Liege to comfort the bereaved parents.
After his daughter's killing, he helped found an agency for missing children. When Stacy and Nathalie disappeared, the group distributed tens of thousands of missing posters with their photographs.
A court was expected to rule soon whether to keep Aid Oud in custody. His lawyers are demanding he be freed, arguing there is no evidence to link him to the crimes.
Results of autopsies also were expected Thursday in the girls' deaths.
In a strange twist, police were studying an anonymous letter received Wednesday by the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf which contained two maps showing where the girls' bodies could be found.
In a report on its Web site, the paper said the maps, sent from Rotterdam, indicated a spot about 1.2 miles from the spot where they were found, but along the same rail line. "We received a letter with a map on it that could be interesting for this investigation, so we've passed it on to our colleagues in Belgium," Amsterdam police spokesman Gerard Vrooland said.
posted by LD at 6:04 PM
1 Comments:
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