In June 1995, 8-year-old friends Melissa Russo & Julie Lejeune went for a walk to a park near their neighbourhood outside the Belgian capital city of Brussels. When they failed to return home, their parents reported their disappearance to police. But nothing came of any subsequent publicity or desperate TV appeals. It was as though the pair had vanished into thin air.

2 months later, 17-year-old An Marchal & 19-year-old Eefje Lambrecks went out for the evening while on a Belgian seaside holiday with a group of friends. When the girls failed to return to their accommodation or make contact, the rest of their group knew something was very wrong. But local police failed to take the disappearance seriously.

In the spring of 1996, 12-year-old Sabine Dardenne was riding her bike to school near the French-Belgian border. When Sabine failed to show up at school that day or return home, posters were distributed in the local area. But no one had seen hide nor hair of her.

It wasn’t until August that same year, when 14-year-old Laetitia Delhez disappeared while walking home from her local swimming pool, that things started to heat up in terms of a police investigation. Local police patrols around the country weren’t aware of girls and young women going missing in other parts of Belgium, but one select police branch did. And a specific suspect was on their radar. Following witness tip offs, officers identified a man and brought him in for questioning. As he spoke to investigators, a horrifying story started to unfold. What the man had to tell police would rock Belgian law enforcement, the judiciary, and the very fabric of Belgian society and its people to the core for years to come.

CW: suicide, sexual assault, child abuse, drug use, family violence

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