vault backup: 2026-09-22 20:08:04
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- Person
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- Belgium
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- Dutroux
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summary: "Christine Van Hees was a teenage girl whose body was discovered on an old mushroom farm in 1984."
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summary: "Brussels teenager whose burned body was found in 1984 at a disused mushroom farm in Auderghem; the case was reopened in 1996 on the testimony of the witness X1 and never solved."
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died: 1984
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location: "Auderghem, Belgium"
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created: 2026-05-14
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updated: 2026-09-22
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---
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Christine Van Hees was a teenage girl whose body was discovered on an old mushroom farm in 1984. She was murdered in what became a cold case that was later reopened as part of the [[X-Dossier]] investigation related to the [[Marc Dutroux]] affair. According to the testimony of witness "X1" ([[Regina Louf]]), Christine Van Hees, known as "Chrissie," was tortured and murdered at a factory farm in 1984. The details provided by X1 matched the crime scene with such precision that they could not have been obtained from public sources or newspaper reports.[^1]
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Christine Van Hees was killed in 1984 and partly burned in the disused mushroom farm (champignonnière) at Auderghem, on the outskirts of Brussels. The murder was not solved, and the file stayed with the Brussels investigating judge [[Jean-Claude Van Espen]].[^2][^4] She was fifteen or fourteen.[^5]
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The crime scene revealed horrific details about Christine's final moments. Her body was badly burnt and bound with ligature fixed to the neck running down to the ankles. One wrist had a penetration wound caused by a metal nail-like object. The murder occurred in the basement of a factory on the farm, where the perpetrators set her on fire after torturing her. The brutality of the crime and the specific nature of the wounds suggested a ritualistic element to the murder, consistent with patterns observed in other cases connected to the broader Dutroux network and organized child abuse operations in Belgium during this period.[^1]
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### The X1 Testimony
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The precision of X1's testimony was so remarkable that even critics of her testimony were forced to either acknowledge its accuracy or claim that investigators had fed her the information as part of a conspiracy. This level of detail included specific information about the location, method of torture, and identity of participants that would have been impossible to know without firsthand knowledge or involvement in the crime. The Christine Van Hees case became one of three cold case murders investigated by the X-Dossier team that led to the reopening of her case based on X1's testimony, demonstrating the significance of witness testimony in potentially solving long-unsolved crimes connected to organized abuse networks.[^1]
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In 1996 the witness X1, [[Regina Louf]], told the Neufchâteau investigators of the murder of a girl she knew as "Chrissie." "It was a sort of bondage," she later said, "so her legs and her hands and her throat were connected with the same rope, and so when she moved she strangled herself." She said that [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]] took part in the killing and that [[Marc Dutroux]] watched; Nihoul denied it.[^3] She also named [[Bernard Weinstein]] and the lawyer [[Michel Vander Elst]].[^1] The farm had since been demolished, but she described its wallpaper, sinks, hooks in the ceiling and a network of stairs and adjoining rooms. Rudi Hoskens, one of the officers assigned to re-examine the case, said: "She gave us some details that made us think it's impossible to give without having been there at that place." The son of the farm's former owner said: "I have never met Regina Louf. All I know is that she could not have described the house as well as she did unless she'd been there. It was two houses joined together in a strange way." The Prosecutor General of Liège, Anne Thily, told a reporter in 2002 that Louf was a fantasist who had invented everything.[^3]
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### Suspects and Accused Perpetrators
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X1 identified several key figures as having participated in the torture and murder of Christine Van Hees. [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]], a businessman and central figure in the Dutroux network, was named as a primary participant. Marc Dutroux, the convicted serial killer and child molester, was also identified as being involved in the murder. [[Bernard Weinstein]], an associate of Dutroux who worked at a video processing company, was named as another participant. [[Michel Vander Elst]], a lawyer with ties to Nihoul and the video processing company where Weinstein worked, was also accused of involvement in the crime.[^1]
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The connection between these individuals and the video processing company where Weinstein worked suggested a possible link to the production and distribution of child abuse material, which was a common thread in many cases connected to the Dutroux network. Vander Elst's position as a lawyer provided legal cover and connections that could help protect the activities of the network from law enforcement scrutiny.[^1]
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### Geographic and Social Connections
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Investigations revealed that Christine Van Hees had connections to several key locations and individuals that placed her within the orbit of the Dutroux-Nihoul network. She regularly visited locations frequented by Michel Nihoul and Marc Dutroux in early 1984, including swimming every week at a swimming pool located above Radio Activité, where Nihoul was active. She frequently went skating at Poseidon in Woluwe, where Dutroux and his associate Francis H. also skated.[^1]
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Christine had a friend who drove an American car with an eagle on the hood, matching Nihoul's vehicle. She regularly skipped school to spend time with Philippe M., who worked at Radio Arc-en-Ciel in Schaarbeek. Philippe M.'s name was found in her personal telephone book, indicating a closer relationship than casual acquaintance. These connections suggested that Christine may have been deliberately targeted or groomed for exploitation by individuals associated with the network, using social connections and trusted relationships to gain access to vulnerable young people.[^1]
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Louf's account led the gendarme Aimé Bille to the old file, and he found that the earlier investigation under Van Espen had "multiple gaps."[^4] Van Hees had swum weekly at a pool above the premises of [[Radio Activité]], where Nihoul was active, and skated at Poseidon in Woluwe, which Dutroux also frequented.[^1]
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### The Investigating Judge
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The investigation was directed in the 1980s by the Brussels investigating judge [[Jean-Claude Van Espen]], and the reopened file was returned to him at the end of January 1997. The Belgian parliamentary commission of inquiry recorded its astonishment at his "violent reaction" to contacts between its councillor-investigator and the Neufchâteau investigators, and his order of June 22, 1997, suspending all investigative acts by the team; it concluded that he had given "particular, in fact disproportionate, attention" to those contacts.[^2] *The Observer* reported in 2002 that a Belgian journalist had revealed his "close relationship" with Nihoul and his then wife: that as a lawyer he had represented Nihoul's wife, that his sister was godmother of Nihoul's child, and that he had resigned from the case in early 1998.[^3] On April 23, 1998, the prosecutors-general of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels closed the files opened on Louf's testimony; the murder was never solved.[^4]
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The reopened file was returned to Van Espen at the end of January 1997. The Belgian parliamentary commission of inquiry recorded its astonishment at his "violent reaction" to contacts between its councillor-investigator and the Neufchâteau investigators, and his order of June 22, 1997, suspending all investigative acts by the team; it concluded that he had given "particular, in fact disproportionate, attention" to those contacts.[^2] In 2002 it was reported that a Belgian journalist had revealed his "close relationship" with Nihoul and his then wife: that as a lawyer he had represented Nihoul's wife, that his sister was godmother of Nihoul's child, and that he had resigned from the case in early 1998.[^3]
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On April 23, 1998, the prosecutors-general of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels found that "no proof could be found that Regina Louf could make any contribution whatsoever to these investigations" and closed the related files, among them the reopened inquiries into the murders of Van Hees, [[Carine Dellaert]], [[Veronique Dubrulle]], [[Katrien de Cuyper]] and Hanim Ayse Mazibas.[^4]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: 'Belgium's silent heart of darkness', The Observer, May 5 2002; 'Who did not kill Christine Van Hees?', DeMorgen, September 22 1998
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[^2]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. *Enquête parlementaire ... affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts,* rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/kvvcr/pdf_sections/comm/dutroux/49K0713008.pdf
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[^1]: "Who did not kill Christine Van Hees?" *De Morgen,* September 22, 1998; not examined, cited here as the page's earlier source.
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[^2]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. *Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts,* rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/kvvcr/pdf_sections/comm/dutroux/49K0713008.pdf
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[^3]: Frenkiel, Olenka. "Belgium's silent heart of darkness." *The Observer,* May 5, 2002. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/05/dutroux.featuresreview
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[^4]: Sénat de Belgique. Proposition déposée par M. Frans Lozie, Doc. 2-563/1, October 9, 2000.
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[^5]: *The Observer* gives her age as fifteen in its account of Louf's description; this page earlier gave fourteen, from a source not now identified.
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[^4]: Sénat de Belgique. Proposition visant à instituer une commission d'enquête parlementaire chargée d'enquêter sur l'éloignement de deux enquêteurs de la cellule d'enquête bruxelloise « Neufchâteau », déposée par M. Frans Lozie, Doc. 2-563/1, October 9, 2000.
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@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ In 2003, while a student at [[Drexel University]], Horsch caused a drunk-driving
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On the morning of June 19, 2026, a federal park ranger approached Horsch's BMW at a fire hydrant beside [[Independence National Historical Park]]. His passenger said he was going to hurt her. She carried an identification card in the name of [[Blair Tonzelli]], missing since 2023. In the car were two handguns with obliterated serial numbers, a switchblade, a baton, a cattle prod, crack cocaine, and [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] credentials with his photograph in the name Eugene Frederick Steiner. The search of his house produced forged FBI credentials and the computer used to make them.[^2][^5]
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A federal grand jury indicted him on July 9, 2026. State prosecutors withdrew their five counts on August 6. [[United States]] v. Horsch, No. 2:26-cr-00296, is before Judge [[John Milton Younge]] in the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania|Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]. A January trial date has been reported. He is represented by [[Jerome Brown]], Maureen McCartney, and Justin Ashenfelter. Brown said: "We categorically deny that Eugene Horsch is a serial killer," "there's zero evidence right now that anyone was killed at that location," and "I'd be shocked if they found any harm related to those missing persons at that location."[^2][^4][^6][^7]
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A federal grand jury indicted him on July 9, 2026. State prosecutors withdrew their five counts on August 6. [[United States]] v. Horsch, No. 2:26-cr-00296, is before Judge [[John Milton Younge]] in the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania|Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]. A January trial date had been reported; on the defense's request the trial was postponed in September 2026 to begin no earlier than March 22.[^8] He is represented by [[Jerome Brown]], Maureen McCartney, and Justin Ashenfelter. Brown said: "We categorically deny that Eugene Horsch is a serial killer," "there's zero evidence right now that anyone was killed at that location," and "I'd be shocked if they found any harm related to those missing persons at that location."[^2][^4][^6][^7]
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### Footnotes
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@ -45,3 +45,4 @@ A federal grand jury indicted him on July 9, 2026. State prosecutors withdrew th
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[^5]: "Five takeaways from Philly missing women mystery connected to Raymond and Eugene Horsch," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 4, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-missing-women-20260804.html
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[^6]: United States v. Horsch, No. 2:26-cr-00296 (E.D. Pa. filed July 8, 2026), docket via CourtListener / RECAP.
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[^7]: "Eugene Horsch Denies He's a Serial Killer as Philadelphia Cops Hunt for Missing Women," *Newsweek,* 2026. https://www.newsweek.com/philadelphia-obviously-serial-killer-former-fbi-agent-12457175
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[^8]: Charns, David. "Eugene Horsch trial delayed amid missing women investigations." *NBC10 Philadelphia,* September 22, 2026. https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/eugene-horsch-trial-delayed-amid-philadelphia-missing-women-investigations/4467226/
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---
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---
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created: 2026-05-15
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updated: 2026-09-22
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title: George Kennan
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@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ Before his sentencing on the drug-manufacturing charge, the psychologist [[Don S
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Ferkuniak died of an overdose in 1989 at 39. The following month Horsch bought a house on Airey Avenue in [[New Britain Township, Pennsylvania|New Britain Township]] for 137,500 dollars. He filed for bankruptcy in 1993, listing a barbecue restaurant, Butterworth's Hickory Pit, as a trade name. In 1997 township police charged him with cashing 187.19 dollars in paychecks made out to his dead nephew. Around 1999 he was briefly engaged to a teenage housekeeper. In the 1990s and 2000s he produced a series of pornographic videos with amateur couples and then films of staged violence against women, many of whom he recruited with cash and drugs on the streets of [[Kensington, Philadelphia|Kensington]]. He married [[Amy McHale]] in 2004, and they divorced in 2008.[^1][^10][^11]
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In 2009 a woman at the house called township police to report noises. Officers under Chief [[Robert Scafidi]] found 455 marijuana plants in the basement, firearms including an M1 carbine, 25 pounds of gunpowder, bondage devices, pornography showing women who appeared to be bleeding, and identification cards belonging to several different women. Horsch ran into the surrounding fields and was caught. Scafidi said the district attorney's office took the identification cards for follow-up. "I really don't know what happened after that," he said. In 2010 Horsch was charged with attempting to lure a nine-year-old girl into his car, and city prosecutors dismissed the charge. He pleaded guilty to federal drug and weapons counts in January 2011, was sentenced to 53 months, and was released in June 2013. The bank repossessed the [[New Britain, Pennsylvania|New Britain]] house the same year.[^7][^10][^12]
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In 2009 a woman at the house called township police to report noises. Officers under Chief [[Robert Scafidi]] found 455 marijuana plants in the basement, firearms including an M1 carbine, 25 pounds of gunpowder, bondage devices, pornography showing women who appeared to be bleeding, and identification cards belonging to several different women. Horsch ran into the surrounding fields and was caught. Scafidi said the district attorney's office took the identification cards for follow-up. "I really don't know what happened after that," he said. On March 20, 2009, on Ontario Street in Kensington, Horsch slowed his green Jeep beside a nine-year-old girl, called to her, got out and approached her; she ran home, and police found him nearby with binoculars, a camera with a telephoto lens, an eye patch and condoms in the Jeep. In 2010 he was convicted in Municipal Court of luring a child into a motor vehicle and corrupting the morals of a minor, and Judge Roger Gordon sentenced him to two and a half to five years, a conviction that would have required registration under Megan's Law. The prosecutor, Jill Fertel, had asked for the maximum after learning what the New Britain police had found. Horsch appealed for a new trial in the Common Pleas Court; the girl and her mother were too afraid to testify again, the charges were dropped, the conviction was vacated, and in 2015 a Common Pleas judge granted his petition to expunge the case. In September 2026 a court clerk refused *The Philadelphia Inquirer* access to the file on the ground that expunged records should have been destroyed. "No one was getting arrested for what Raymond Horsch was doing," Fertel said.[^18] He pleaded guilty to federal drug and weapons counts in January 2011, was sentenced to 53 months, and was released in June 2013. The bank repossessed the [[New Britain, Pennsylvania|New Britain]] house the same year.[^7][^10][^12][^19]
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### The Olney House
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@ -111,3 +111,5 @@ On September 16, 2026, Deputy Police Commissioner [[Frank Vanore]] said that inv
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[^15]: Briggs, Ryan W., Max Marin, Barbara Laker, and Ellie Rushing. "Raymond Horsch had access to a Kensington crematorium linked to illegal body parts sales, years before missing persons investigation," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 21, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-horsch-missing-women-kensington-bodies-crematorium-20260921.html
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[^16]: "Philadelphia police identify 58 people in images from investigation into Olney house," *CBS News Philadelphia,* September 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/horsch-investigation-chew-avenue-olney-philadelphia/
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[^17]: "Eugene Horsch Denies He's a Serial Killer as Philadelphia Cops Hunt for Missing Women," *Newsweek,* 2026. https://www.newsweek.com/philadelphia-obviously-serial-killer-former-fbi-agent-12457175
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[^18]: Rushing, Ellie, Barbara Laker, Ryan W. Briggs, and Max Marin. "Raymond Horsch was convicted of luring a 9-year-old girl to his car in 2009. Now those court records could be destroyed." *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 22, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/raymond-horsch-child-luring-kensington-records-expunged-20260922.html
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[^19]: The same Inquirer article of September 22, 2026, gives the federal sentence as 54 months with five years' probation; the earlier sources give 53 months. The federal docket was not examined.
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@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ Regina Louf, born in Ghent in 1969, was the witness known as X1 in the investiga
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### Her Account
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Louf said that from early childhood she had been prostituted by her grandmother, [[Cecile Beernaert]], at a villa in [[Knokke-Heist]] near the [[Royal Zoute Golf Club]], that at about twelve she was handed to a pimp, [[Tony Van den Boggaert]], who took her to parties in Brussels attended by [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]], and that the parties moved from sex to torture and murder. Among those she named as clients or participants were the former prime minister [[Paul Vanden Boeynants]] and members of the Lippens family, [[Count Leopold Lippens]] and [[Count Maurice Auguste Lippens]]. She said she had witnessed the 1984 murder of [[Christine Van Hees]] in the abandoned mushroom farm at Auderghem, naming Dutroux, Nihoul, [[Bernard Weinstein]] and the lawyer [[Michel Vander Elst]], and the 1983 death of [[Carine Dellaert]] after childbirth. She described a factory site that investigators connected to [[ASCO Industries NV]], a villa at Faulx-les-Tombes and parties on the Avenue Louise.[^2] She published her account as *Zwijgen is voor daders* in 1998.[^2]
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Louf said that from early childhood she had been prostituted by her grandmother, [[Cecile Beernaert]], at a villa in [[Knokke-Heist]] near the [[Royal Zoute Golf Club]], that at about twelve she was handed to a pimp, [[Tony Van den Boggaert|Tony Van den Bogaert]], who took her to parties in Brussels attended by [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]], and that the parties moved from sex to torture and murder. Among those she named as clients or participants were the former prime minister [[Paul Vanden Boeynants]] and members of the Lippens family, [[Count Leopold Lippens]] and [[Count Maurice Auguste Lippens]]. She said she had witnessed the 1984 murder of [[Christine Van Hees]] in the abandoned mushroom farm at Auderghem, naming Dutroux, Nihoul, [[Bernard Weinstein]] and the lawyer [[Michel Vander Elst]], and the 1983 death of [[Carine Dellaert]] after childbirth. She described a factory site that investigators connected to [[ASCO Industries NV]], a villa at Faulx-les-Tombes and parties on the Avenue Louise.[^2] She published her account as *Zwijgen is voor daders* in 1998.[^2]
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### The Investigation of Her Testimony
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@ -33,10 +33,11 @@ Her account of Van Hees led the Brussels gendarme Aimé Bille to the unsolved fi
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After Connerotte was removed from the Dutroux case in October 1996 and replaced by Judge Jacques Langlois, the cell came under a Mr. Duterme, who from April 1997 had De Baets's colleagues reread the interviews and report on her credibility and on possible manipulation by De Baets's team; the first report, very negative for De Baets, "totally lacked credibility," and a second was ordered. In the summer of 1997 Langlois ordered a complete rereading of all the related files and removed De Baets and Bille from the investigation. A criminal investigation of the two gendarmes by Judge Pignolet was dropped and a gendarmerie disciplinary inquiry acquitted them completely; they then filed more than eighty complaints alleging that reports in the rereading had been falsified.[^1]
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In January 1998 Louf gave up her anonymity, in part to protest the stalling of the inquiry, amid a press campaign against her fed by leaks from police and judicial circles. On April 23, 1998, the day Dutroux briefly escaped, the prosecutors-general of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels decided that "no proof could be found that Regina Louf could make any contribution whatsoever to these investigations" and closed the related files. The same day, in a confrontation with Louf, the man described as her "so-called protector" admitted that he had had sex with her when she was twelve, with her parents' knowledge, and had once lent her to others; the admission was not pursued, the acts being time-barred.[^1] The Van Hees case was closed unsolved in 2014 under the statute of limitations.[^3]
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In January 1998 Louf gave up her anonymity, in part to protest the stalling of the inquiry, amid a press campaign against her fed by leaks from police and judicial circles. On April 23, 1998, the day Dutroux briefly escaped, the prosecutors-general of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels decided that "no proof could be found that Regina Louf could make any contribution whatsoever to these investigations" and closed the related files. The same day, in a confrontation with Louf, the man described as her "so-called protector" admitted that he had had sex with her when she was twelve, with her parents' knowledge, and had once lent her to others; the admission was not pursued, the acts being time-barred.[^1] Her parents had told police that a family friend in his forties, Tony Van den Bogaert, had a key to their home and unlimited access to their twelve-year-old daughter, and he admitted his relationship with her to police; the RTBF program *Au Nom de la Loi* presented the parents as victims of a fantasist without mentioning either admission.[^4] The Van Hees case was closed unsolved in 2014 under the statute of limitations.[^3]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Sénat de Belgique. Proposition visant à instituer une commission d'enquête parlementaire chargée d'enquêter sur l'éloignement de deux enquêteurs de la cellule d'enquête bruxelloise « Neufchâteau », déposée par M. Frans Lozie, Doc. 2-563/1, October 9, 2000, développements. https://www.senate.be
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[^2]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited; the underlying accounts are Louf, Regina, *Zwijgen is voor daders* (1998), and Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck, *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux* (Houtekiet, 1999), neither of which was seen.
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[^3]: "On ne percera pas le mystère de la champignonnière." *La Libre Belgique,* January 30, 2014 (not examined; reported in search summaries of the article).
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[^4]: Frenkiel, Olenka. "Belgium's silent heart of darkness." *The Observer,* May 5, 2002. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/05/dutroux.featuresreview
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---
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created: 2026-05-15
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updated: 2026-05-15
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title: Stanley Levison
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