Death of Katrien De Cuyper

On the evening of 17 December 1991, Belgian teenager Katrien De Cuyper (Dutch pronunciation: [kɑtrin də ˈkœy̯pər]) disappeared in Antwerp. Six months later, her body was discovered in the port of Antwerp. In 2006, a 35-year-old man from Kessel, who had written to a magazine saying that he was with her on the night she disappeared, was arrested and charged with her kidnapping and murder; he was released after four months due to a lack of evidence.[3] The case remains unsolved.

Katrien De Cuyper
Born(1976-04-29)29 April 1976[1]
Schoten, Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium[2]
Disappeared17 December 1991 (aged 15)
IJzerlaan, Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium
StatusFound dead 19 June 1992
Cause of deathStrangulation
Body discoveredPort of Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium
Resting placeBrasschaat, Flanders, Belgium
Known forHomicide victim
In this Dutch name, the surname is De Cuyper, not Cuyper.

Disappearance and body discovery

On Tuesday, 17 December 1991, Katrien De Cuyper, a fifteen-year-old girl from Brasschaat, went to visit a friend in Lange Lobroekstraat in Antwerp. After the visit, her friend stayed behind and let her walk to the bus stop alone as it was raining.[4] De Cuyper telephoned her parents at 21:30 to tell them she would take the bus home. She missed the bus and was last seen at 22:45 at Les Routiers café on the IJzerlaan, where she made a phone call to an unknown person.[2][5][6] On 19 June 1992, her naked, buried body was discovered during groundwork in the port of Antwerp. Investigation showed that she had been strangled.[7]

Investigation

Letters to Blik and Regina Louf confession

A month after De Cuyper's body was found, weekly magazine Blik received a letter from an anonymous sender claiming that they had given her a lift after she missed her bus the night she disappeared.[4][8] The following October, Blik received another letter from the same sender, as did De Cuyper's parents the month after.[4] In February 1997, Regina Louf (also known in Belgium as "Witness X1") wrote a letter to police confessing to killing De Cuyper.[9] Louf said that De Cuyper had been held in a castle north of Antwerp in which children would be raped, tortured and killed by what Louf described as a "paedophile network", and that she had been ordered to kill the teenager during an orgy.[9][10] No concrete evidence was found to support Louf's testimony.[9]

Arrest of Karl V.R.

In August 2006, a 35-year-old man from Kessel identified as Karl V.R., who had been arrested for stalking, was charged with the kidnap and murder of De Cuyper. Police searching his house found child pornography on his computer and a box which contained newspaper clippings of articles about De Cuyper's disappearance and murder and copies of the letters sent to Blik and to her parents in 1992. Furthermore, V.R.'s DNA had been found on the stamp on the envelope of one of the letters. In March 2002, his brother had been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his ex-girlfriend's boyfriend.[11][12] V.R. admitted that he wrote the letters but said that they were fabricated and that he only wrote them for publicity.[13] In September 2006, De Cuyper's remains were exhumed for further tests.[14][15]

On 19 December 2006, V.R. was released from custody as the investigation had found no evidence against him other than the letters.[3] In 2007, he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for possession of child pornography.[16]

See also

References
  1. Dupont, Gilbert (21 September 2006). "Katrien De Cuyper a été exhumée". La Dernière Heure (in French). Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  2. "Deel 2". De X-dossiers. 18 March 2004. Zembla.
  3. "Verdachte in zaak Katrien De Cuyper op vrije voeten". Het Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). 19 December 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  4. Eeckhaut, Mark; Neyt, Geert; Verhaeghe, Tonny (11 August 2006). "Verdachte gaf Katrien laatste lift". Het Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  5. Bulté, Annemie; De Coninck, Douglas; Van Heeswyck, Marie-Jeanne (1999). De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux. Belgium. p. 382. ISBN 9789052405360.
  6. "Ze zijn vermoord maar door wie?". Het Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). 27 February 2005. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  7. "Nieuw verhoor verdachte na vondst van derde lijk". Leidse Courant (in Dutch). Brussels. 23 June 1992. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  8. "Katrien De Cuyper: Lettre anonyme". Le Soir (in French). 25 July 1992. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  9. Surmont, Eddy; Vantroyen, Jean-Claude (28 January 1998). "Elle s'accuse du meurtre de Katrien de Cuyper: X1 longuement interrogée à Anvers". Le Soir (in French). Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  10. de Graaf, Peter (28 January 1998). "België smacht naar de waarheid over X1; Gruwelijke getuoigenissen". De Volkskrant (in Dutch). Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  11. "Verdachte in moordzaak Katrien De Cuyper vrij". De Morgen (in Dutch). 20 December 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  12. Surmont, Eddy (12 August 2006). "Le meurtre de Katrien De Cuyper élucidé?". Le Soir (in French). Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  13. "Aanhouding verdachte in moordzaak Katrien De Cuyper verlengd". De Standaard (in Dutch). 11 September 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  14. "Lichaam Katrien De Cuyper opgegraven". Het Laatste Nieuws (in Dutch). 21 September 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2006.
  15. "Exhumation du corps de Katrien De Cuyper". Le Soir (in French). 21 September 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  16. "Ex-verdachte moord Katrien De Cuyper krijgt zes maanden cel". Het Laatste Nieuws (in Dutch). 2 November 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
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