October 25, 2022 • 43 mins
Belgian shame is on full display for the world to see. The incompetence and accusations of conspiracy play out in court as Dutroux and his accomplices stand trial. Surviving victims, victim's families, and new witnesses take the stand.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
It was the month of April nineteen ninety eight and
spring flowers were beginning to bloom in the quaint town
of neuf Chateau, nestled into the gorgeous Valet du Lac
in the south of Belgium. It's an area where people
come to get away and enjoy the fruits of nature.
With hiking trails along flowing streams leading from one flowery
village to the next. It seems like a very strange
(00:47):
place to hold Belgium's most hated criminal, but his original
arrest was linked to the disappearance of Letitia Dalas from
the nearby village of Bertrie, and neuf Chateau had jurisdiction
over the case. It had been almost two years since
the true's arrest and there was a new investigating judge
named Jacques l'anlois in charge of the case, as the
(01:08):
previous Judge Jean Marc Conrad had been removed. Judge Langlois,
as well as the king's prosecutor Boulais, and police officers
du Moulin and Adon, whom you heard from in previous episodes,
were toiling away in Enouf Chateau investigating the case and
preparing for a future trial. Mark d True was also
(01:28):
busy at work in enauf Chateau preparing his defense. Like
all defendants, de True had the right to consult a
file relative to his case. On the twenty third of
April nineteen ninety eight, the True was in the Justice
Palace of Neufchateau looking over his files under the watch
of two gendarmes. The Justice Palace is somewhat of a
(01:48):
quaint structure right in the center of town, built in
the eighteen hundreds, with a well carved statue of an
angel in front, flanked by a double staircase leading to
the entrance. Given the size of the sprawling case file,
it couldn't be kept all in one place. A file
to True was looking for was on a different floor,
so one of the gendarmes guarding him left him with
(02:09):
the other armed guard to go upstairs. And fetch it
from another repository. D True was unhandcuffed so he could
consult the files, and now it was just him and
the other officer. He saw his chance and took it.
He lurched at the unexpecting officer with a hard punch
and went straight for his gun. It worked. Suddenly the
(02:34):
tables had turned drastically. De True was hands free behind
an unlocked door and armed with a nine millimeters service revolver.
He bolted out the door and flew down the inside stairs,
suddenly finding himself face to face with a deputy Crown prosecutor.
(02:54):
Without hesitation, he pointed the gun straight at the prosecutor's
head while continuing his escape. It wasn't long before he
burst out of the large public entrance into the bright
light of day. He hid behind a wall nearby to
catch his breath and saw a woman stopped in her
car nearby. Without hesitation, he pounced and brutally carjacktor at gunpoint.
(03:21):
Now he had wheels and was speeding out of nef
Chateau into the thick surrounding forest. The True had just
achieved the impossible. Belgium's most notorious criminal had escaped.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Psychobat is somebody who understands emotions.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
And I told them it is very exceptional that somebody
abducts two children at the same time. To be theen
of it in nineteen eighty six, but my god, it
was just a beginning.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
I think Belgium was a paralyzed for perverts in those days.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Welcome to La Monstra. I'm your host. Matt Graves a
stupid vas.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I love Texuntian for a position.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I'll never forget the day the true escaped. It was
one of those historic moments for Belgium where everyone remembers
where they were when they heard the news. The entire
country was glued to their TVs and radios, from the
north of Flanders to the south of Wologna. Everyone was
holding their breath. How could this be the country's most
(05:02):
dangerous and hated criminal was armed and on the loose.
All of Belgium's police forces were immediately deployed, and both
sides of border patrols in neighboring France, Germany and Luxembourg
were put on high alert. Surveillance aircraft were scrambled, including
search planes and sixteen helicopters. Police were retracing the steps
(05:25):
of the escape they knew to True had burst out
of the Justice Palace at two forty six pm, and
there were several bystanders who witnessed the escape. One of
these witnesses recognized the True and gave chase, but when
he caught up with him, De True raised his gun
and the man ran for cover. The car he jacked
was a gray Renault Megan model and it was last
(05:47):
seen speeding out of Neufchateau, heading south into the forest.
It had now been over an hour and the search
was still on once again. Bruno de Nis gives voice
to what people were feeling in Belgium at the time.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
What can I say? I mean, at this point people
already weren't trusting the police, and so I hear in
my car on the radio while driving that the True escaped.
Are you kidding me? The one guy in the whole
country that shouldn't escape. It was embarrassing. It was like
(06:22):
Belgium was a banana republic. I mean, you can't make
up this kind of stuff. Because there was so little
trust at that time. People were suspicious that the Gendarmerie
was playing games.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
While the public was rightly outraged, it was the victims'
families and surviving victims that were once again failed by
the justice system. Letitia Dalis was at school when she
was alerted of the escape. She burst into tears when
she realized that it wasn't just a cruel joke. The
Legion family went into hiding, fearing that the Truth could
(06:58):
show up at their house. The investigative journalist Douglas Daconic
and his colleagues felt similarly to the public and wondered
if there was something else at play here.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
But that day, for the first time in more any year,
it was we heard the voice of Michelle Bourle on
the radio very quick I think, only a few minutes
after the True escaped, saying that he could confirm that
the True had escaped, that he had took a gun,
but the gun was unloaded, and yeah, I don't know
what to think about it, But a lot of journalists
(07:30):
had the idea, why is he saying this publicly so quickly? Afterwards,
there were theories that Gean Darmerie would have liked very
much open fire on Market. True, nobody would have complained,
but it would have been the end of the possibility
to interrogate Market. True. I don't think. Michelle Bourgle suspected
(07:53):
Gehan dear Marie of wanting to kill the True, but
he just wanted to make sure that it wouldn't happen.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Meanwhile, Da Trux was trying to make himself lost in
the forest when he pulled into an unpaved road. The
car got stuck and he had to make a run
for it on foot. A forest ranger saw him and
immediately called it in. It wasn't long before he was
surrounded and had no choice but to surrender. It all
(08:26):
ended as quickly as it started, and after three hours
of stress and disbelief, the country breathed a sigh of
collective relief at the sight of the True being brought
back into custody. Both the ministers of the Interior and
Justice immediately tendered their resignations as the government quickly tried
to draw a line under this embarrassing episode. When things
(08:56):
settled down after d'tru's escape and capture, everyone turned to Noufchateau.
The investigating judge, Jacques l'anois, had the unenviable task of
bringing the case to trial. The French and Belgian judicial
systems are very different to what we're used to in
the Anglo American world, an investigating judge replaces the function
of a grand jury, ultimately deciding if their sufficient evidence
(09:20):
of guilt to warrant a trial. He or she wields
considerable powers, including the issuing of warrants, seizing of evidence,
and whether or not to take the case forward. In
the end, an investigating judge really determines who is being
charged in the overall shape of the trial. It took
no less than seven years since the arrest of de
(09:42):
True to bring the case forward. For the families of
Julie Lejeone, Melissa Rousseau, Ann Martial and Effie Alambrics and
surviving victims Letitia de Les and sabindardin seven years must
have felt like an eternity. Eventually, Belgian's trial of the
century got under way.
Speaker 6 (10:03):
La Poise de.
Speaker 7 (10:04):
Marque de Marque Utreu and he is rust to Alta.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
It was March two thousand and four at the Court
of the Seas in the city of Arlon in Belgium,
the first day of the biggest trial in the history
of this country. A large field close to the courthouse
was cleared to accommodate the over two hundred and fifty
media outlets covering the trial. In total, there were three judges,
(10:36):
fourteen civil parties, fifteen lawyers, twenty four jurors, over four
hundred and fifty witnesses and four defendants. These were Mark
the True, his wife Michelle Martin, the accomplice Michel Le Lievre,
and corrupt businessman Michel Nihu. The True was led into
(10:56):
the courthouse under heavy guard wearing a kevlar bulletprin fest.
The four defendants were seated in a specially constructed bulletproof
glass cage in front of the courtroom. I spoke to
a broadcast journalist from the French TV channel France Du
named Jasmino Farber, who was dispatched to Belgium to cover
the trial.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
I was a senior reporter for the Friends two channel
when I was assigned to this trial of Marduttru. We
were three or four journalists, which is not so often
in France to be many journalists to cover a trial.
So this was a really big, big case for us
(11:38):
even in France. The story and the case of Mandutru
had a big, big rotantisman, big echo for us in France.
We were really shocked about what happened at this time,
so in the spirit of the French people, it was
also very important to hear the end of the story
(12:01):
of Markdutru. So I dived into the dossier and the
horror of the facts, and the first reflex is to
introduce Margdutru as a monster child killer. But I usually
strive to avoid simplistic narratives in my work. For example,
(12:21):
I had the opportunity to cover the trial of two
famous serial killers in France, Guigeorge and Patris Aleg and
they raped and killed women. The facts were terrifying. However,
during the trial we formd a bit of humanity and
fragility in these guys, even if their actions were dreadful.
(12:42):
But in the case of Margdutru, I must say that
I never found an ounce of humanity, nor in the attitude,
neither in his eyes. Quite the contrary. This strengthened opinion
that there was nothing readeemable in this man. For example,
(13:04):
markdut who told the jury he was the victim. It
said that he protected the little girls from a terrible danger.
But what is more terrible that happened to his victims.
We had to listen to him till like you feel sick.
He never second guest himself or showed any form of
(13:28):
regret during the trial. I remember he tried to appear
like an intellectual, very proud of himself, with his little glasses,
he sued his little notes. I remember when he talked
about his childhood, he said that he had no ice
(13:48):
cream during terrible summer holidays. Imagine what it feels for
a kid, he said. And so when you listen to this,
you are you're in the audience, but you think you
are dreaming or making a nightmare. So that's the memories
I have of this guy behind this window, very quiet
(14:12):
and very calm. And even you know that he fell
asleep the first day of the trial. So that was
really crazy. And really I was struck by the dignity
of the parents and the families. Really you had to
keep your calm because he was just unbearable. It's simple, Sve.
(14:35):
This span is the first time in my life, and
I made many trials. The first time in my life,
I say, Okay, you can't change this guy. And maybe
it's the picture of the monster.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
When the trial finally kicked off, there was, however, an
important absence. Gino and Karine Rousseau, the mother and father
of Melissa Russo, boycott the entire trial. They never accepted
how the previous investigating judge Conrad had been removed from
the case, and were unhappy with how his replacement, Judge l'anglois,
(15:11):
had put together the trial. In an open letter published
by the national newspaper Lessois, they wrote, quote, because of
the limited scope of police investigations in forensic examination, we
do not know all of the truth about the tragic
end of Julian Melissa, the exact circumstances of their abduction,
and the possible and not yet revealed complicities from which
(15:34):
the true and his associates could have benefited. Unquote. I
asked the investigative journalist Douglas d' konig about the Rousseau's
decision to boycott the trial.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
Well, there were from their point of view, and from
a right point of view, there were too many unanswered questions.
They had been arguing with the team of Charqulancois for years,
having all kinds of questions that every normal person would
have had. I think going from Hotel Brazil, the place
where Julia and Melissa were kidnapped, where Chaqueslanglois failed to
(16:09):
prove to make his point because during a trial, jurors
have the right to ask questions, and day after day
it was the jury that was leading the debates. That
was very strange for us, because they asked the right questions.
I remember this one lady number twelve was lost of
the twelve jurors. She did this in a very mutual way,
in a very polite way. She took over the role
(16:32):
that the Russos might have played in this trial. So,
for example, the location where Julia and Melissa were kidnapped
may seem a detail, but it isn't because most people
who know the investigations say that they have been kidnapped
on the motorway in Clausolgnia. There are a lot of
witnesses talking about the red Ford Fiesta. That's what the
(16:53):
Russo's think as well, because I remember the first, the
very first witness of one of the very firsts. I
think this was a very ordinary guy, a policeman, and
they asked him, yes, sir, can you present yourself? Well,
I'm a policeman and I work with a dog. The
day of the kidnapping of Julia and Melissa, he and
his dog smelled at a pillow of Julia len and
(17:16):
he went straight to the roots red Ford Fiesta place.
That's where it all starts. And then long grew a
few days later appeared with It was very new in
those days, but he brought in a PowerPoint with thousands
of slides just to try and to prove that no, no, no,
the dog was wrong. He had found an old, ninety
(17:37):
year old lady who's sitting behind her window. She would
have seen the kidnapping, and this would exclude the whole
Fort Fiesta thing. And then he had these jurors. They
just raised their hands and they started asking one question
after another, and it was obvious that they didn't believe
a word of what Langlois was saying.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
You may recall that way back in episode two, I
discussed the various witness reports following the disappearance of Julian Melissa.
There were several witnesses who claimed to have seen a
red Ford fiesta on the side of the highway under
the bridge where the girls disappeared, as well as another
witness who claimed that someone in a red Ford fiesta
(18:20):
tried to kidnap her daughter and friend nearby on the
same day. There was also another witness statement that conflicted
with these sightings, an elderly woman named Marie Louise Henrote,
who thought she saw the girls get into a dark
car on one of the side roads near the highway.
The point here is that Judge Lanlois decided to go
(18:42):
with the elderly woman's version of events for the reconstitution
of the girl's disappearance and subsequent investigations, and therefore didn't
pursue the red Ford Fiesta. Not exploring the red Ford
Fiesta was significant and downplayed the possible existence of other parties.
Rousseau's were not at the trial. Surviving victims Sabin Darden
(19:03):
and Laticia de Leis were in attendance. The media scrum
went into a frenzy when they entered the courtroom. When
Sabin Darden took to the stand, she was very different
from the twelve year old girl we saw rescued from
the Truce House of Horrors back in nineteen ninety six.
At twenty one, Sabine entered the courtroom with confidence. She
(19:24):
faced her tormented directly and spoke with courage and determination.
Journalist Jesmina Farbert brings us back to the scene.
Speaker 6 (19:33):
We all remember the pictures of the liberation of Sabin
Darden and Leticia de Lea, and Sabin crying in the
arms of her parents and saying I missed you so much.
So the testimony of the survivors is always a high
point in a trial because it puts the cues facing
(19:55):
his acts. The death people can talk, the survivor are
their voices. Sabin faced this severe test with such a dignity,
such a bravery. She knew that when she entered the
court she would face but trux, so she decided to
look him in the eyes to get rid of this
(20:16):
problem and stress. She described markdutt Hou like a perverse,
like a madman. She told that margut Hou was saying
to her every day, you are my wife, You are
my new wife. She also remembered his arrogance. He was
so proud, for example, to say that he built the fireplace.
(20:38):
He was proud of everything. I was really really shocked
when she told usdtt Hou told this little girl of
twelve years old that her parents didn't want to pay
the ransom, and that he protected Sabin from people who
wanted to harm her. Sabin in the dungeon she wrote letters,
(21:04):
so dutru took the letters and of course never sent them,
so he really was a perverse and he told her
this little girl it was a moral torture more than
a physical torture. Also because she was raped also every day,
so this was really disgusting. Michelle Martin, the wife of
(21:28):
Mark dut Russe, said she was sorry, but Sabin said
that she couldn't forgive because Michelle Martin knew everything. She
saw them, She saw the girls, and she saw the
girls going down, going up in the rooms and going
down and going up, so she couldn't forgive. Michelle Martin.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
I've spoken with many people who experienced this trial firsthand,
and every single one of them was an agreement that
there was one particular event that marked them for life.
It was the out of court visit of the actual
dungeon in the Truz House in Marsinel, where jurors, lawyers, journalists,
and family members got to see the horror of this
(22:11):
place first hand, and victims Sabine and Letitia returned to
the side of their appalling experience.
Speaker 8 (22:19):
Today, victims, parents and members of the jury were given
a guided tour around a family home now taken apart
by detectives. It was the site of the hidden dungeon
that reduced most to tears. Locked in a tiny room
three feet by six feet, eight year old's Julia Melissa
starved to death. Julie's name is barely visible.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
On the wall.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Only a handful of journalists were allowed to participate in
the visit of d' tru's house. Douglas d'connig was one
of them.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
To me the moments who marked me as a as
a human being, of course, it would be the visit
of the gates in Martinel. This was a feeling during
two minutes because we only were led in a few
minutes in couples. I was with a journalists of a
liber Belgic just two of us for two minutes in
(23:12):
that cage, and it was the fear, the feeling of,
how do you say it, experienced by two minutes what
Sabin a Letitia and Julia Melissa must have experienced. This
there's no words to describe it. You can't even you
(23:33):
can't stand up in that cage. I'm not very cloustrophobic,
but I was at that moment in a very intense way.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Again, French journalists, he has mina farber.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
Side visits during a trial are called in French transport
justice and they are quite rare. Obviously, it's a key
moment in a trial. To go down these stairs, to
get down into the dungeon of Marcinelle was a journey
(24:04):
to the bottom of hell. Judges, lawyers, survivors, members of
the jury, journalists could touch the horror with their eyes.
And I remember the footages that I used for the news,
the bus arriving, and how Sabine looked at the exterior
(24:27):
of the locations, and of course because she only knew
the inside of it.
Speaker 8 (24:34):
Facing up to personal horror. Sabine Darden and Letitia Delay
young women returning to the house where they'd been held hostage,
just children. What happened inside this house shocked to nation
and left four girls dead.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
The reaction of Leticia Dole, who is going out of
the dungeon crying, sella, mehrda, so it's shit, it's wh it.
Speaker 8 (25:01):
The memories too much for Letitia murder, reaching instinctively for Sabine,
seeking comfort from their shared pain. Together, they spent eighty
six days in the Truce dungeon. In contrast, the true
showed no emotion, boasting about how he'd built the cellar,
(25:23):
unmoved by the bed where he changed his victims, or
the pleading handmark outlined on the window.
Speaker 6 (25:30):
The father of Al Marshall told us when he came back,
you don't put animals in this place, and he put children.
My boss was one of the few journalists who had
received credentials to go to the dungeon. I saw him
come back so pale. He told us it was beyond
(25:54):
anything one could imagine. He told that he saw on
the yellow role an inscription with a black pencil left
by one of the victims, was written Julie. I was
watching the live and I cried, and Dominique ended the live,
(26:15):
and he left his microphone and he went to walk,
and he didn't come to see us in the technical truck.
He often told me that he was shocked for the
rest of his life. And Dominique covered hundreds of trials
and very difficult criminal tries. I came back in Paris
(26:37):
after three or four months to cover this case. I
told my other boss, the big Boss. I said, okay
for me, it's over. I don't want to make any
trial again.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
I can't.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
I just can't anymore. I was sick, really, I really
felt like my body it was hurting everywhere. It's difficult
after to come back to life because when you know
what people what they lived, and it's a vision of
(27:10):
humanity which is a hopeless And I went told so
to war war scenes and I saw difficult stuff. But
I think the true case was one of the most
shocking story of my life.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Hearing these accounts reminds me of something Karine Rousseau said
to me during our interview. She said that although she
and her husband Gino may look like normal people, they're
severely injured in a way that's irreparable. They're handicapped by
the knowledge of what happened to their daughter. Most of
(27:57):
us are conditioned to avoid thinking about the unthinkable, but
many people in the world don't have the choice because
they've lived through the unthinkable and it's always there, lingering.
The only thing we can do is listen and empathize
with them, and above all, try to stop the unthinkable
from happening again in the future. To a certain extent,
(28:27):
the outcomfort to true of the trial was assured the
evidence was overwhelming. His wife, Michele Martin, and accomplice michel
Lelievre were also clearly heading to prison. The fate of
Michelle Nihoul, however, was less certain. Initial DNA testing did
not match me whole. However, over five thousand hares were
found in the basement where Julie and Melissa were held captive.
(28:51):
Judge l'angois refused to have them tested, despite the urging
of Michel Boulet. According to prosecutors, they didn't believe anyone
else was involved. In fact, they were even accused of
lying and saying that the hairs had been tested. At
the end of the day, Nihu would be pivotal because
he represented a link to a possible wider network. Thus
(29:15):
developed a deep schism between the judge l'anglois, along with
certain investigators, lawyers, and journalists on one side, who wanted
to focus exclusively on to true in its direct accomplices,
versus the prosecutor Boulet along with other investigators, lawyers and
journalists who wanted to dig into the question of a
wider network. Still today, when discussing the affair, there are
(29:39):
two camps what they call in French, the quillon or
believers of a wider network versus the non Quyon or
non believers. The schism became so entrenched that it divided friendships, families,
and even changed the course of careers of police, journalists
and magistrates. The lawyers of Letitia de Les took the
(30:02):
lead in making the case against Nahoul and therefore opening
the door to a possible wider network. The charge they
needed to prove was that Nihool was involved with the
kidnapping of Letitia de Les. They started by reminding the
court that shortly after being arrested, De True's accomplice, michel
Le Lievre, said that both Nihoul and de Trux wanted
(30:24):
him to get involved with their human trafficking scheme. The
plan had been to bring young women from Slovakia to Belgium,
where Nihool would place them in prostitution networks. From there.
Letitia's lawyers drilled into the hard to ignore circumstantial evidence,
namely the frenzy of phone calls between Nihoul, De True,
(30:44):
and l Lievre on the days leading up to of
and just after Letitia's disappearance, the quote payment of fifteen
thousand dollars worth of ecstasy pills from Nihoul to l
Lieva and De True on the day after the kidnapping,
and the testimony from Letitia herself that just after being kidnapped,
(31:05):
she overheard a telephone conversation between the True and a
certain Jean Michel where de True had said quote it worked.
Remember that Michel Nihoul was often also referred to as
Jean Michel. You'll recall that after the True and Nihoule
were arrested back in nineteen ninety six, there was a
public call for any other witnesses to come forward with information.
(31:29):
The people who came forward were called the ex witnesses
to protect their identities X one, x two, x three,
and so forth. In the last episode, we covered the
shocking testimony of one of these ex witnesses named Regina Louf,
concerning Nihoul's direct involvement with her abuse as a child.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
I remember Jean Michel nut as a very cruel man.
He abused children in a very sadistic way sometimes during
these parties.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Regina Loof was not called to testify the trial because
the investigation of her and other so called ex witnesses
was suddenly shut down back in nineteen ninety eight. Rudy Hoskins,
one of the gen Darmes who worked on the team
investigating Regina loose testimony, explain to me how this played out.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
And at a certain point in time they started accusing
of of being suggestive and stuff like that. Wish was
for me, not the case. It was fact based. And
also the interviews everything was on tape. Everything was written
down literally because we had people just writing every word
literally down. So for us there was no suggestivity. Was
(32:39):
just asking questions and getting answered and putting it on paper.
And then at a certain point in time they started
accusing us. We were like suspended, and then they came
with why they called it proof. We called it like forgery,
and they changed to words and then we said, hey, guys,
this is not good. What are they doing because this
(33:00):
is not what we have written. And we still have
that copy that's not the same and that is the
one we signed, but that's not what we wrote. And
there are more of them.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Remember, Rudy Hoskins and his team were originally brought in
to investigate Regina Loof and other ex witnesses at the
request of Judge Conrad. When Judge Conrad was removed from
the case, a new judge named Jean Claude van Espen
was put in charge of the ex witnesses, and he
quickly moved to shut down the investigation.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
We wrote like a memo to the judge to Valestment
to say, okay, that's what we sent to Now we
see this against us, what's happening? Tell us we want
to see you, we won't talk to you, and you
refuse to see us anymore. Because Vanestment was a financial
judge and we used to work with him a lot.
We were his preferred team, he was or preferred judge,
(33:52):
and at a certain point he didn't want to work
with us anymore. He didn't believe us anymore and he
didn't want to receive us anymore. And also van Espin
he was also the judge on the Championet case in
eighty four when he was a young judge right, which
was also a bit a bit worrying.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
So the new judge van Espin was the original judge
who oversaw the horrific Champignier case in the eighties that
Rudy and his team were now reinvestigating, which meant the
judge would have to overturn his previous decisions and have
his judgment question if the new investigation were to yield results.
This was a clear conflict of interest. There's another important
(34:30):
detail about Judge van Espin that Rudy and his team
didn't know at the time that he had a connection
with Michelle Nihoul. He and his ex wife reportedly had
been friends with Nihoul, and van Espin had represented Niehool's
wife as a young lawyer, and his sister was the
godmother of one of Nihoul's children.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
And then it.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Started getting worse, and so we were suspended to We
were put in a room without any cases anymore, without
any work and h We asked ourselves every day, why
what did we do wrong? We also got discilinary proceedings
against us. Everything they could.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
They did they could. Why do you think they were
doing that?
Speaker 3 (35:13):
That's a good question. We still ask ourselves that question.
That we came too close. Probably were there some things
that they didn't want us to dig up? Probably? Was
it all through what he was seeing? Probably not? Was
it all through that the other axes were saying? Probably not?
But some things were right. But what things that happened
in that that pier were so strange. I still remember
(35:38):
driving home every evening and asking myself, are we followed
or not? I slept my gun on my pillow every night. Really,
what the fuck did we do wrong? We just did
or work, We checked facts and how we like the
criminals of Belgium.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
All charges against Root and his team were eventually dropped
and they were completely clear any wrongdoing. But after the
case was shut down, Regina Loof was almost totally discredited
as an unstable fantasist who made the whole story up.
The majority of Belgium press aligned with the police in
judicial hierarchy to declare that Regina Loof was making it
(36:16):
all up. In an interview on Belgium's national TV channel,
Regina's parents were portrayed as a sweet old couple who
were shocked and ashamed about the delusions of their phantasist daughter.
They completely denied her claims that she was abused as
a child by a family friend, despite actually having admitted
that this was true to police and that they knowingly
(36:38):
allowed the abuse to continue for several years. According to
the psychologist who led the council of five psychiatrists to
assess Regina on order of the judiciary, it was determined
that Loof had certainly suffered severe and prolonged sexual abuse
in her childhood, and that her testimony should be considered
as credible. The shocking facts were reported by a small
(37:02):
group of plucky journalists at the time. However, it was
too late. The media cycle had moved on, The case
was closed and Regina Aloof was not invited to testify
at the trial in two thousand and four. Her testimony
may not have been needed to convict the True, but
she was another link that connected Michel Nihul to a
wider conspiracy. On June twenty second, two thousand and four,
(37:27):
the verdict came in.
Speaker 7 (37:31):
The most reviled man in Belgium, Mark du True, was
convicted of kidnapping and holding six hostage, and of torturing
and killing four of them. The twelve member during an
army base for fear an attempt would be made on
his life.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Had sat through three months.
Speaker 7 (37:47):
Of evidence horrific details which will stay with them. It
had taken just three days to consider two hundred and
forty three counts against the True and against his ex
wife and two other alleged accomplices.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Finally, the truce fate was known. He was sentenced to
the maximum life in prison. His wife, Michelle Martin, received
thirty years and l'alevre got twenty five years. The crux
of the case now centered on Michel Niho. The jury
convicted him of drug charges related to the ecstasy trafficking,
but they got stuck on the question of his involvement
(38:22):
with the disappearance of Letitia de Les. Douglas Daconic takes
us back to this key moment.
Speaker 5 (38:28):
Mainly the verdict in Belgium starts with guilty, yes or no.
And it's not just guilty of one crime.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
No.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
He divides the question in like hundreds of sub questions,
and we were there with your list and your number,
and it was number one, yes, yes, yes, number two yes,
yes yes, for maybe an hour that just went on
and at a certain moment to reach the moment where
he had the accusation against Michelle Niull being part of
kittapping of Letitia del that was like the main point,
(38:55):
but there it was five seven. That means that jurors
don't want to take a decision. Theoretically they have voted
and seven have set guilty, five accept none guilty, And
in that case it's the president of the trial who
must answer the question does he follow the majority or not?
Speaker 2 (39:16):
So despite the seven to five guilty vote. The president
of the trial made the final call and decided that
there wasn't enough evidence to convict the whole of involvement
with the disappearance of Letitia d Llas. It's incredible how
closely who was to being convicted.
Speaker 5 (39:31):
But just a few weeks earlier you had the lawyer
of Michellalevren. He was very close to the defense of
Michelle mule and during the trial I had the impression
that he was working for Michelle Yulee, not for Lievre.
And so what happens at a certain moment. There's a
guy it was during number five. He was a butcher
(39:52):
from a village near Arlons and he asked the question,
but is the lawyer of Lalievre said in his question,
he has used this word, which means that he already
has an opinion about the guilt of my client. And
in that case, if you do that as a juror,
they sent you away us as reporters. He didn't say
(40:12):
that word. He didn't. I know these jurors as well,
was saying, well, what's happening here, and he's just inventing
because they were warned not to ask leading questions but
this guy is during number five, he starts panicking and
he takes his hands makes the form of a gun.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
So juring Number five made the sign of a gun
with his hand in a way to say, shoot me now,
which was an obvious no note in the world of
jury behavior.
Speaker 5 (40:39):
That was the point when he had to be sent away,
not because of the words he used, because of his
stupid reaction. And afterwards, after the five seven verdict, all
these jurors were in the bar where we as journalists
had spent four months having lunch drinking beers. So he
approached them and he said, hi, oh a. We said,
(40:59):
we are allowed to talk to jewelers, but everybody knows
it happens, and they all said the same thing. Nil
has been saved by sending away number five because number thirteen,
who replaced him, she was the one. She hadn't followed
the trial that much to her vote that decided that
Michel Jule did not kidnap more than one jewelers said
(41:21):
the butcher would have been there, it would have been
eight four, and eight four is guilty.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
By the skin of his teeth. Nihul avoided being convicted
of involvement with the kidnappings, thus officially closing the door
on the question of a wider network. By throwing out
the testimony of ex witnesses not presenting the theory involving
the red Ford Fiesta, and the unwillingness to explore additional
DNA testing on over five thousand hairs, the judiciary sent
(41:50):
a clear message they had no interest in finding out
who else may have been involved next time on the Monstra.
While the trial may have brought some closure, the aftermath
offers more pain as accomplices one by one walk free
and Mark de True makes his plan to join them.
Episode eleven will be released on November eighth, followed by
(42:13):
the season finale on November fifteenth. Stay Tuned le Monstra
is a production of Tenderfoot TV and iHeart Radio, hosted
and executive produced by me Matt Graves, produced by Thomas
(42:34):
Resimont of Bubble Sound. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay are
executive producers on the behalf of Tenderfoot TV with producer
Makeup and Vanity Set. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams are
executive producers on the behalf of iHeartRadio with producer Trevor Young.
Original music by Jay Ragsdale. Sound design by Cooper Skinner
(42:55):
and Thomas Resimont, mixed and mastered by Cooper Skinner. Cover
design by Tree Trever Eiler. La Monstra includes archival audio
from SONYMA, RTBF Archives and CNN Archives. Special thanks to
Backmedia and Marketing Station sixteen, Jean Savigna, and the teams
at iHeartRadio and tenderfoot TV. Find us on social media
(43:18):
at Monster Underscore pod. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio or
Tenderfoot TV, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows,
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast,
and do not represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, or
their employees. This podcast also contained subject matter which may
not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It was the month of April nineteen ninety eight and
spring flowers were beginning to bloom in the quaint town
of neuf Chateau, nestled into the gorgeous Valet du Lac
in the south of Belgium. It's an area where people
come to get away and enjoy the fruits of nature.
With hiking trails along flowing streams leading from one flowery
village to the next. It seems like a very strange
(00:47):
place to hold Belgium's most hated criminal, but his original
arrest was linked to the disappearance of Letitia Dalas from
the nearby village of Bertrie, and neuf Chateau had jurisdiction
over the case. It had been almost two years since
the true's arrest and there was a new investigating judge
named Jacques l'anlois in charge of the case, as the
(01:08):
previous Judge Jean Marc Conrad had been removed. Judge Langlois,
as well as the king's prosecutor Boulais, and police officers
du Moulin and Adon, whom you heard from in previous episodes,
were toiling away in Enouf Chateau investigating the case and
preparing for a future trial. Mark d True was also
(01:28):
busy at work in enauf Chateau preparing his defense. Like
all defendants, de True had the right to consult a
file relative to his case. On the twenty third of
April nineteen ninety eight, the True was in the Justice
Palace of Neufchateau looking over his files under the watch
of two gendarmes. The Justice Palace is somewhat of a
(01:48):
quaint structure right in the center of town, built in
the eighteen hundreds, with a well carved statue of an
angel in front, flanked by a double staircase leading to
the entrance. Given the size of the sprawling case file,
it couldn't be kept all in one place. A file
to True was looking for was on a different floor,
so one of the gendarmes guarding him left him with
(02:09):
the other armed guard to go upstairs. And fetch it
from another repository. D True was unhandcuffed so he could
consult the files, and now it was just him and
the other officer. He saw his chance and took it.
He lurched at the unexpecting officer with a hard punch
and went straight for his gun. It worked. Suddenly the
(02:34):
tables had turned drastically. De True was hands free behind
an unlocked door and armed with a nine millimeters service revolver.
He bolted out the door and flew down the inside stairs,
suddenly finding himself face to face with a deputy Crown prosecutor.
(02:54):
Without hesitation, he pointed the gun straight at the prosecutor's
head while continuing his escape. It wasn't long before he
burst out of the large public entrance into the bright
light of day. He hid behind a wall nearby to
catch his breath and saw a woman stopped in her
car nearby. Without hesitation, he pounced and brutally carjacktor at gunpoint.
(03:21):
Now he had wheels and was speeding out of nef
Chateau into the thick surrounding forest. The True had just
achieved the impossible. Belgium's most notorious criminal had escaped.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Psychobat is somebody who understands emotions.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
And I told them it is very exceptional that somebody
abducts two children at the same time. To be theen
of it in nineteen eighty six, but my god, it
was just a beginning.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
I think Belgium was a paralyzed for perverts in those days.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Welcome to La Monstra. I'm your host. Matt Graves a
stupid vas.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I love Texuntian for a position.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I'll never forget the day the true escaped. It was
one of those historic moments for Belgium where everyone remembers
where they were when they heard the news. The entire
country was glued to their TVs and radios, from the
north of Flanders to the south of Wologna. Everyone was
holding their breath. How could this be the country's most
(05:02):
dangerous and hated criminal was armed and on the loose.
All of Belgium's police forces were immediately deployed, and both
sides of border patrols in neighboring France, Germany and Luxembourg
were put on high alert. Surveillance aircraft were scrambled, including
search planes and sixteen helicopters. Police were retracing the steps
(05:25):
of the escape they knew to True had burst out
of the Justice Palace at two forty six pm, and
there were several bystanders who witnessed the escape. One of
these witnesses recognized the True and gave chase, but when
he caught up with him, De True raised his gun
and the man ran for cover. The car he jacked
was a gray Renault Megan model and it was last
(05:47):
seen speeding out of Neufchateau, heading south into the forest.
It had now been over an hour and the search
was still on once again. Bruno de Nis gives voice
to what people were feeling in Belgium at the time.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
What can I say? I mean, at this point people
already weren't trusting the police, and so I hear in
my car on the radio while driving that the True escaped.
Are you kidding me? The one guy in the whole
country that shouldn't escape. It was embarrassing. It was like
(06:22):
Belgium was a banana republic. I mean, you can't make
up this kind of stuff. Because there was so little
trust at that time. People were suspicious that the Gendarmerie
was playing games.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
While the public was rightly outraged, it was the victims'
families and surviving victims that were once again failed by
the justice system. Letitia Dalis was at school when she
was alerted of the escape. She burst into tears when
she realized that it wasn't just a cruel joke. The
Legion family went into hiding, fearing that the Truth could
(06:58):
show up at their house. The investigative journalist Douglas Daconic
and his colleagues felt similarly to the public and wondered
if there was something else at play here.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
But that day, for the first time in more any year,
it was we heard the voice of Michelle Bourle on
the radio very quick I think, only a few minutes
after the True escaped, saying that he could confirm that
the True had escaped, that he had took a gun,
but the gun was unloaded, and yeah, I don't know
what to think about it, But a lot of journalists
(07:30):
had the idea, why is he saying this publicly so quickly? Afterwards,
there were theories that Gean Darmerie would have liked very
much open fire on Market. True, nobody would have complained,
but it would have been the end of the possibility
to interrogate Market. True. I don't think. Michelle Bourgle suspected
(07:53):
Gehan dear Marie of wanting to kill the True, but
he just wanted to make sure that it wouldn't happen.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Meanwhile, Da Trux was trying to make himself lost in
the forest when he pulled into an unpaved road. The
car got stuck and he had to make a run
for it on foot. A forest ranger saw him and
immediately called it in. It wasn't long before he was
surrounded and had no choice but to surrender. It all
(08:26):
ended as quickly as it started, and after three hours
of stress and disbelief, the country breathed a sigh of
collective relief at the sight of the True being brought
back into custody. Both the ministers of the Interior and
Justice immediately tendered their resignations as the government quickly tried
to draw a line under this embarrassing episode. When things
(08:56):
settled down after d'tru's escape and capture, everyone turned to Noufchateau.
The investigating judge, Jacques l'anois, had the unenviable task of
bringing the case to trial. The French and Belgian judicial
systems are very different to what we're used to in
the Anglo American world, an investigating judge replaces the function
of a grand jury, ultimately deciding if their sufficient evidence
(09:20):
of guilt to warrant a trial. He or she wields
considerable powers, including the issuing of warrants, seizing of evidence,
and whether or not to take the case forward. In
the end, an investigating judge really determines who is being
charged in the overall shape of the trial. It took
no less than seven years since the arrest of de
(09:42):
True to bring the case forward. For the families of
Julie Lejeone, Melissa Rousseau, Ann Martial and Effie Alambrics and
surviving victims Letitia de Les and sabindardin seven years must
have felt like an eternity. Eventually, Belgian's trial of the
century got under way.
Speaker 6 (10:03):
La Poise de.
Speaker 7 (10:04):
Marque de Marque Utreu and he is rust to Alta.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
It was March two thousand and four at the Court
of the Seas in the city of Arlon in Belgium,
the first day of the biggest trial in the history
of this country. A large field close to the courthouse
was cleared to accommodate the over two hundred and fifty
media outlets covering the trial. In total, there were three judges,
(10:36):
fourteen civil parties, fifteen lawyers, twenty four jurors, over four
hundred and fifty witnesses and four defendants. These were Mark
the True, his wife Michelle Martin, the accomplice Michel Le Lievre,
and corrupt businessman Michel Nihu. The True was led into
(10:56):
the courthouse under heavy guard wearing a kevlar bulletprin fest.
The four defendants were seated in a specially constructed bulletproof
glass cage in front of the courtroom. I spoke to
a broadcast journalist from the French TV channel France Du
named Jasmino Farber, who was dispatched to Belgium to cover
the trial.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
I was a senior reporter for the Friends two channel
when I was assigned to this trial of Marduttru. We
were three or four journalists, which is not so often
in France to be many journalists to cover a trial.
So this was a really big, big case for us
(11:38):
even in France. The story and the case of Mandutru
had a big, big rotantisman, big echo for us in France.
We were really shocked about what happened at this time,
so in the spirit of the French people, it was
also very important to hear the end of the story
(12:01):
of Markdutru. So I dived into the dossier and the
horror of the facts, and the first reflex is to
introduce Margdutru as a monster child killer. But I usually
strive to avoid simplistic narratives in my work. For example,
(12:21):
I had the opportunity to cover the trial of two
famous serial killers in France, Guigeorge and Patris Aleg and
they raped and killed women. The facts were terrifying. However,
during the trial we formd a bit of humanity and
fragility in these guys, even if their actions were dreadful.
(12:42):
But in the case of Margdutru, I must say that
I never found an ounce of humanity, nor in the attitude,
neither in his eyes. Quite the contrary. This strengthened opinion
that there was nothing readeemable in this man. For example,
(13:04):
markdut who told the jury he was the victim. It
said that he protected the little girls from a terrible danger.
But what is more terrible that happened to his victims.
We had to listen to him till like you feel sick.
He never second guest himself or showed any form of
(13:28):
regret during the trial. I remember he tried to appear
like an intellectual, very proud of himself, with his little glasses,
he sued his little notes. I remember when he talked
about his childhood, he said that he had no ice
(13:48):
cream during terrible summer holidays. Imagine what it feels for
a kid, he said. And so when you listen to this,
you are you're in the audience, but you think you
are dreaming or making a nightmare. So that's the memories
I have of this guy behind this window, very quiet
(14:12):
and very calm. And even you know that he fell
asleep the first day of the trial. So that was
really crazy. And really I was struck by the dignity
of the parents and the families. Really you had to
keep your calm because he was just unbearable. It's simple, Sve.
(14:35):
This span is the first time in my life, and
I made many trials. The first time in my life,
I say, Okay, you can't change this guy. And maybe
it's the picture of the monster.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
When the trial finally kicked off, there was, however, an
important absence. Gino and Karine Rousseau, the mother and father
of Melissa Russo, boycott the entire trial. They never accepted
how the previous investigating judge Conrad had been removed from
the case, and were unhappy with how his replacement, Judge l'anglois,
(15:11):
had put together the trial. In an open letter published
by the national newspaper Lessois, they wrote, quote, because of
the limited scope of police investigations in forensic examination, we
do not know all of the truth about the tragic
end of Julian Melissa, the exact circumstances of their abduction,
and the possible and not yet revealed complicities from which
(15:34):
the true and his associates could have benefited. Unquote. I
asked the investigative journalist Douglas d' konig about the Rousseau's
decision to boycott the trial.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
Well, there were from their point of view, and from
a right point of view, there were too many unanswered questions.
They had been arguing with the team of Charqulancois for years,
having all kinds of questions that every normal person would
have had. I think going from Hotel Brazil, the place
where Julia and Melissa were kidnapped, where Chaqueslanglois failed to
(16:09):
prove to make his point because during a trial, jurors
have the right to ask questions, and day after day
it was the jury that was leading the debates. That
was very strange for us, because they asked the right questions.
I remember this one lady number twelve was lost of
the twelve jurors. She did this in a very mutual way,
in a very polite way. She took over the role
(16:32):
that the Russos might have played in this trial. So,
for example, the location where Julia and Melissa were kidnapped
may seem a detail, but it isn't because most people
who know the investigations say that they have been kidnapped
on the motorway in Clausolgnia. There are a lot of
witnesses talking about the red Ford Fiesta. That's what the
(16:53):
Russo's think as well, because I remember the first, the
very first witness of one of the very firsts. I
think this was a very ordinary guy, a policeman, and
they asked him, yes, sir, can you present yourself? Well,
I'm a policeman and I work with a dog. The
day of the kidnapping of Julia and Melissa, he and
his dog smelled at a pillow of Julia len and
(17:16):
he went straight to the roots red Ford Fiesta place.
That's where it all starts. And then long grew a
few days later appeared with It was very new in
those days, but he brought in a PowerPoint with thousands
of slides just to try and to prove that no, no, no,
the dog was wrong. He had found an old, ninety
(17:37):
year old lady who's sitting behind her window. She would
have seen the kidnapping, and this would exclude the whole
Fort Fiesta thing. And then he had these jurors. They
just raised their hands and they started asking one question
after another, and it was obvious that they didn't believe
a word of what Langlois was saying.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
You may recall that way back in episode two, I
discussed the various witness reports following the disappearance of Julian Melissa.
There were several witnesses who claimed to have seen a
red Ford fiesta on the side of the highway under
the bridge where the girls disappeared, as well as another
witness who claimed that someone in a red Ford fiesta
(18:20):
tried to kidnap her daughter and friend nearby on the
same day. There was also another witness statement that conflicted
with these sightings, an elderly woman named Marie Louise Henrote,
who thought she saw the girls get into a dark
car on one of the side roads near the highway.
The point here is that Judge Lanlois decided to go
(18:42):
with the elderly woman's version of events for the reconstitution
of the girl's disappearance and subsequent investigations, and therefore didn't
pursue the red Ford Fiesta. Not exploring the red Ford
Fiesta was significant and downplayed the possible existence of other parties.
Rousseau's were not at the trial. Surviving victims Sabin Darden
(19:03):
and Laticia de Leis were in attendance. The media scrum
went into a frenzy when they entered the courtroom. When
Sabin Darden took to the stand, she was very different
from the twelve year old girl we saw rescued from
the Truce House of Horrors back in nineteen ninety six.
At twenty one, Sabine entered the courtroom with confidence. She
(19:24):
faced her tormented directly and spoke with courage and determination.
Journalist Jesmina Farbert brings us back to the scene.
Speaker 6 (19:33):
We all remember the pictures of the liberation of Sabin
Darden and Leticia de Lea, and Sabin crying in the
arms of her parents and saying I missed you so much.
So the testimony of the survivors is always a high
point in a trial because it puts the cues facing
(19:55):
his acts. The death people can talk, the survivor are
their voices. Sabin faced this severe test with such a dignity,
such a bravery. She knew that when she entered the
court she would face but trux, so she decided to
look him in the eyes to get rid of this
(20:16):
problem and stress. She described markdutt Hou like a perverse,
like a madman. She told that margut Hou was saying
to her every day, you are my wife, You are
my new wife. She also remembered his arrogance. He was
so proud, for example, to say that he built the fireplace.
(20:38):
He was proud of everything. I was really really shocked
when she told usdtt Hou told this little girl of
twelve years old that her parents didn't want to pay
the ransom, and that he protected Sabin from people who
wanted to harm her. Sabin in the dungeon she wrote letters,
(21:04):
so dutru took the letters and of course never sent them,
so he really was a perverse and he told her
this little girl it was a moral torture more than
a physical torture. Also because she was raped also every day,
so this was really disgusting. Michelle Martin, the wife of
(21:28):
Mark dut Russe, said she was sorry, but Sabin said
that she couldn't forgive because Michelle Martin knew everything. She
saw them, She saw the girls, and she saw the
girls going down, going up in the rooms and going
down and going up, so she couldn't forgive. Michelle Martin.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
I've spoken with many people who experienced this trial firsthand,
and every single one of them was an agreement that
there was one particular event that marked them for life.
It was the out of court visit of the actual
dungeon in the Truz House in Marsinel, where jurors, lawyers, journalists,
and family members got to see the horror of this
(22:11):
place first hand, and victims Sabine and Letitia returned to
the side of their appalling experience.
Speaker 8 (22:19):
Today, victims, parents and members of the jury were given
a guided tour around a family home now taken apart
by detectives. It was the site of the hidden dungeon
that reduced most to tears. Locked in a tiny room
three feet by six feet, eight year old's Julia Melissa
starved to death. Julie's name is barely visible.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
On the wall.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Only a handful of journalists were allowed to participate in
the visit of d' tru's house. Douglas d'connig was one
of them.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
To me the moments who marked me as a as
a human being, of course, it would be the visit
of the gates in Martinel. This was a feeling during
two minutes because we only were led in a few
minutes in couples. I was with a journalists of a
liber Belgic just two of us for two minutes in
(23:12):
that cage, and it was the fear, the feeling of,
how do you say it, experienced by two minutes what
Sabin a Letitia and Julia Melissa must have experienced. This
there's no words to describe it. You can't even you
(23:33):
can't stand up in that cage. I'm not very cloustrophobic,
but I was at that moment in a very intense way.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Again, French journalists, he has mina farber.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
Side visits during a trial are called in French transport
justice and they are quite rare. Obviously, it's a key
moment in a trial. To go down these stairs, to
get down into the dungeon of Marcinelle was a journey
(24:04):
to the bottom of hell. Judges, lawyers, survivors, members of
the jury, journalists could touch the horror with their eyes.
And I remember the footages that I used for the news,
the bus arriving, and how Sabine looked at the exterior
(24:27):
of the locations, and of course because she only knew
the inside of it.
Speaker 8 (24:34):
Facing up to personal horror. Sabine Darden and Letitia Delay
young women returning to the house where they'd been held hostage,
just children. What happened inside this house shocked to nation
and left four girls dead.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
The reaction of Leticia Dole, who is going out of
the dungeon crying, sella, mehrda, so it's shit, it's wh it.
Speaker 8 (25:01):
The memories too much for Letitia murder, reaching instinctively for Sabine,
seeking comfort from their shared pain. Together, they spent eighty
six days in the Truce dungeon. In contrast, the true
showed no emotion, boasting about how he'd built the cellar,
(25:23):
unmoved by the bed where he changed his victims, or
the pleading handmark outlined on the window.
Speaker 6 (25:30):
The father of Al Marshall told us when he came back,
you don't put animals in this place, and he put children.
My boss was one of the few journalists who had
received credentials to go to the dungeon. I saw him
come back so pale. He told us it was beyond
(25:54):
anything one could imagine. He told that he saw on
the yellow role an inscription with a black pencil left
by one of the victims, was written Julie. I was
watching the live and I cried, and Dominique ended the live,
(26:15):
and he left his microphone and he went to walk,
and he didn't come to see us in the technical truck.
He often told me that he was shocked for the
rest of his life. And Dominique covered hundreds of trials
and very difficult criminal tries. I came back in Paris
(26:37):
after three or four months to cover this case. I
told my other boss, the big Boss. I said, okay
for me, it's over. I don't want to make any
trial again.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
I can't.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
I just can't anymore. I was sick, really, I really
felt like my body it was hurting everywhere. It's difficult
after to come back to life because when you know
what people what they lived, and it's a vision of
(27:10):
humanity which is a hopeless And I went told so
to war war scenes and I saw difficult stuff. But
I think the true case was one of the most
shocking story of my life.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Hearing these accounts reminds me of something Karine Rousseau said
to me during our interview. She said that although she
and her husband Gino may look like normal people, they're
severely injured in a way that's irreparable. They're handicapped by
the knowledge of what happened to their daughter. Most of
(27:57):
us are conditioned to avoid thinking about the unthinkable, but
many people in the world don't have the choice because
they've lived through the unthinkable and it's always there, lingering.
The only thing we can do is listen and empathize
with them, and above all, try to stop the unthinkable
from happening again in the future. To a certain extent,
(28:27):
the outcomfort to true of the trial was assured the
evidence was overwhelming. His wife, Michele Martin, and accomplice michel
Lelievre were also clearly heading to prison. The fate of
Michelle Nihoul, however, was less certain. Initial DNA testing did
not match me whole. However, over five thousand hares were
found in the basement where Julie and Melissa were held captive.
(28:51):
Judge l'angois refused to have them tested, despite the urging
of Michel Boulet. According to prosecutors, they didn't believe anyone
else was involved. In fact, they were even accused of
lying and saying that the hairs had been tested. At
the end of the day, Nihu would be pivotal because
he represented a link to a possible wider network. Thus
(29:15):
developed a deep schism between the judge l'anglois, along with
certain investigators, lawyers, and journalists on one side, who wanted
to focus exclusively on to true in its direct accomplices,
versus the prosecutor Boulet along with other investigators, lawyers and
journalists who wanted to dig into the question of a
wider network. Still today, when discussing the affair, there are
(29:39):
two camps what they call in French, the quillon or
believers of a wider network versus the non Quyon or
non believers. The schism became so entrenched that it divided friendships, families,
and even changed the course of careers of police, journalists
and magistrates. The lawyers of Letitia de Les took the
(30:02):
lead in making the case against Nahoul and therefore opening
the door to a possible wider network. The charge they
needed to prove was that Nihool was involved with the
kidnapping of Letitia de Les. They started by reminding the
court that shortly after being arrested, De True's accomplice, michel
Le Lievre, said that both Nihoul and de Trux wanted
(30:24):
him to get involved with their human trafficking scheme. The
plan had been to bring young women from Slovakia to Belgium,
where Nihool would place them in prostitution networks. From there.
Letitia's lawyers drilled into the hard to ignore circumstantial evidence,
namely the frenzy of phone calls between Nihoul, De True,
(30:44):
and l Lievre on the days leading up to of
and just after Letitia's disappearance, the quote payment of fifteen
thousand dollars worth of ecstasy pills from Nihoul to l
Lieva and De True on the day after the kidnapping,
and the testimony from Letitia herself that just after being kidnapped,
(31:05):
she overheard a telephone conversation between the True and a
certain Jean Michel where de True had said quote it worked.
Remember that Michel Nihoul was often also referred to as
Jean Michel. You'll recall that after the True and Nihoule
were arrested back in nineteen ninety six, there was a
public call for any other witnesses to come forward with information.
(31:29):
The people who came forward were called the ex witnesses
to protect their identities X one, x two, x three,
and so forth. In the last episode, we covered the
shocking testimony of one of these ex witnesses named Regina Louf,
concerning Nihoul's direct involvement with her abuse as a child.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
I remember Jean Michel nut as a very cruel man.
He abused children in a very sadistic way sometimes during
these parties.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Regina Loof was not called to testify the trial because
the investigation of her and other so called ex witnesses
was suddenly shut down back in nineteen ninety eight. Rudy Hoskins,
one of the gen Darmes who worked on the team
investigating Regina loose testimony, explain to me how this played out.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
And at a certain point in time they started accusing
of of being suggestive and stuff like that. Wish was
for me, not the case. It was fact based. And
also the interviews everything was on tape. Everything was written
down literally because we had people just writing every word
literally down. So for us there was no suggestivity. Was
(32:39):
just asking questions and getting answered and putting it on paper.
And then at a certain point in time they started
accusing us. We were like suspended, and then they came
with why they called it proof. We called it like forgery,
and they changed to words and then we said, hey, guys,
this is not good. What are they doing because this
(33:00):
is not what we have written. And we still have
that copy that's not the same and that is the
one we signed, but that's not what we wrote. And
there are more of them.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Remember, Rudy Hoskins and his team were originally brought in
to investigate Regina Loof and other ex witnesses at the
request of Judge Conrad. When Judge Conrad was removed from
the case, a new judge named Jean Claude van Espen
was put in charge of the ex witnesses, and he
quickly moved to shut down the investigation.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
We wrote like a memo to the judge to Valestment
to say, okay, that's what we sent to Now we
see this against us, what's happening? Tell us we want
to see you, we won't talk to you, and you
refuse to see us anymore. Because Vanestment was a financial
judge and we used to work with him a lot.
We were his preferred team, he was or preferred judge,
(33:52):
and at a certain point he didn't want to work
with us anymore. He didn't believe us anymore and he
didn't want to receive us anymore. And also van Espin
he was also the judge on the Championet case in
eighty four when he was a young judge right, which
was also a bit a bit worrying.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
So the new judge van Espin was the original judge
who oversaw the horrific Champignier case in the eighties that
Rudy and his team were now reinvestigating, which meant the
judge would have to overturn his previous decisions and have
his judgment question if the new investigation were to yield results.
This was a clear conflict of interest. There's another important
(34:30):
detail about Judge van Espin that Rudy and his team
didn't know at the time that he had a connection
with Michelle Nihoul. He and his ex wife reportedly had
been friends with Nihoul, and van Espin had represented Niehool's
wife as a young lawyer, and his sister was the
godmother of one of Nihoul's children.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
And then it.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Started getting worse, and so we were suspended to We
were put in a room without any cases anymore, without
any work and h We asked ourselves every day, why
what did we do wrong? We also got discilinary proceedings
against us. Everything they could.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
They did they could. Why do you think they were
doing that?
Speaker 3 (35:13):
That's a good question. We still ask ourselves that question.
That we came too close. Probably were there some things
that they didn't want us to dig up? Probably? Was
it all through what he was seeing? Probably not? Was
it all through that the other axes were saying? Probably not?
But some things were right. But what things that happened
in that that pier were so strange. I still remember
(35:38):
driving home every evening and asking myself, are we followed
or not? I slept my gun on my pillow every night. Really,
what the fuck did we do wrong? We just did
or work, We checked facts and how we like the
criminals of Belgium.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
All charges against Root and his team were eventually dropped
and they were completely clear any wrongdoing. But after the
case was shut down, Regina Loof was almost totally discredited
as an unstable fantasist who made the whole story up.
The majority of Belgium press aligned with the police in
judicial hierarchy to declare that Regina Loof was making it
(36:16):
all up. In an interview on Belgium's national TV channel,
Regina's parents were portrayed as a sweet old couple who
were shocked and ashamed about the delusions of their phantasist daughter.
They completely denied her claims that she was abused as
a child by a family friend, despite actually having admitted
that this was true to police and that they knowingly
(36:38):
allowed the abuse to continue for several years. According to
the psychologist who led the council of five psychiatrists to
assess Regina on order of the judiciary, it was determined
that Loof had certainly suffered severe and prolonged sexual abuse
in her childhood, and that her testimony should be considered
as credible. The shocking facts were reported by a small
(37:02):
group of plucky journalists at the time. However, it was
too late. The media cycle had moved on, The case
was closed and Regina Aloof was not invited to testify
at the trial in two thousand and four. Her testimony
may not have been needed to convict the True, but
she was another link that connected Michel Nihul to a
wider conspiracy. On June twenty second, two thousand and four,
(37:27):
the verdict came in.
Speaker 7 (37:31):
The most reviled man in Belgium, Mark du True, was
convicted of kidnapping and holding six hostage, and of torturing
and killing four of them. The twelve member during an
army base for fear an attempt would be made on
his life.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Had sat through three months.
Speaker 7 (37:47):
Of evidence horrific details which will stay with them. It
had taken just three days to consider two hundred and
forty three counts against the True and against his ex
wife and two other alleged accomplices.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Finally, the truce fate was known. He was sentenced to
the maximum life in prison. His wife, Michelle Martin, received
thirty years and l'alevre got twenty five years. The crux
of the case now centered on Michel Niho. The jury
convicted him of drug charges related to the ecstasy trafficking,
but they got stuck on the question of his involvement
(38:22):
with the disappearance of Letitia de Les. Douglas Daconic takes
us back to this key moment.
Speaker 5 (38:28):
Mainly the verdict in Belgium starts with guilty, yes or no.
And it's not just guilty of one crime.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
No.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
He divides the question in like hundreds of sub questions,
and we were there with your list and your number,
and it was number one, yes, yes, yes, number two yes,
yes yes, for maybe an hour that just went on
and at a certain moment to reach the moment where
he had the accusation against Michelle Niull being part of
kittapping of Letitia del that was like the main point,
(38:55):
but there it was five seven. That means that jurors
don't want to take a decision. Theoretically they have voted
and seven have set guilty, five accept none guilty, And
in that case it's the president of the trial who
must answer the question does he follow the majority or not?
Speaker 2 (39:16):
So despite the seven to five guilty vote. The president
of the trial made the final call and decided that
there wasn't enough evidence to convict the whole of involvement
with the disappearance of Letitia d Llas. It's incredible how
closely who was to being convicted.
Speaker 5 (39:31):
But just a few weeks earlier you had the lawyer
of Michellalevren. He was very close to the defense of
Michelle mule and during the trial I had the impression
that he was working for Michelle Yulee, not for Lievre.
And so what happens at a certain moment. There's a
guy it was during number five. He was a butcher
(39:52):
from a village near Arlons and he asked the question,
but is the lawyer of Lalievre said in his question,
he has used this word, which means that he already
has an opinion about the guilt of my client. And
in that case, if you do that as a juror,
they sent you away us as reporters. He didn't say
(40:12):
that word. He didn't. I know these jurors as well,
was saying, well, what's happening here, and he's just inventing
because they were warned not to ask leading questions but
this guy is during number five, he starts panicking and
he takes his hands makes the form of a gun.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
So juring Number five made the sign of a gun
with his hand in a way to say, shoot me now,
which was an obvious no note in the world of
jury behavior.
Speaker 5 (40:39):
That was the point when he had to be sent away,
not because of the words he used, because of his
stupid reaction. And afterwards, after the five seven verdict, all
these jurors were in the bar where we as journalists
had spent four months having lunch drinking beers. So he
approached them and he said, hi, oh a. We said,
(40:59):
we are allowed to talk to jewelers, but everybody knows
it happens, and they all said the same thing. Nil
has been saved by sending away number five because number thirteen,
who replaced him, she was the one. She hadn't followed
the trial that much to her vote that decided that
Michel Jule did not kidnap more than one jewelers said
(41:21):
the butcher would have been there, it would have been
eight four, and eight four is guilty.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
By the skin of his teeth. Nihul avoided being convicted
of involvement with the kidnappings, thus officially closing the door
on the question of a wider network. By throwing out
the testimony of ex witnesses not presenting the theory involving
the red Ford Fiesta, and the unwillingness to explore additional
DNA testing on over five thousand hairs, the judiciary sent
(41:50):
a clear message they had no interest in finding out
who else may have been involved next time on the Monstra.
While the trial may have brought some closure, the aftermath
offers more pain as accomplices one by one walk free
and Mark de True makes his plan to join them.
Episode eleven will be released on November eighth, followed by
(42:13):
the season finale on November fifteenth. Stay Tuned le Monstra
is a production of Tenderfoot TV and iHeart Radio, hosted
and executive produced by me Matt Graves, produced by Thomas
(42:34):
Resimont of Bubble Sound. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay are
executive producers on the behalf of Tenderfoot TV with producer
Makeup and Vanity Set. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams are
executive producers on the behalf of iHeartRadio with producer Trevor Young.
Original music by Jay Ragsdale. Sound design by Cooper Skinner
(42:55):
and Thomas Resimont, mixed and mastered by Cooper Skinner. Cover
design by Tree Trever Eiler. La Monstra includes archival audio
from SONYMA, RTBF Archives and CNN Archives. Special thanks to
Backmedia and Marketing Station sixteen, Jean Savigna, and the teams
at iHeartRadio and tenderfoot TV. Find us on social media
(43:18):
at Monster Underscore pod. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio or
Tenderfoot TV, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows,
Host
Matt Graves
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