A woman from Sint-Niklaas, East Flanders, was killed by her ex-boyfriend in a dispute over €400,000 worth of cryptocurrency, Sudinfo reports.
Tamara Engels, the victim, had previously expressed concern that her life was in danger as her former partner had recently returned to the country, according to her father.
Several days later, on 17 May, the victim failed to turn up to work. Her colleagues, fearing something had happened to the 33-year-old, phoned the police. Arriving at her home, the police received no answer after ringing the doorbell.
The murder suspect is believed to have contacted the victim claiming to have been hospitalised in Belgium, sending photos as proof. Suspicious, Engels contacted the hospital, who said that they had no evidence of him being there. The victim’s father believes that this was his first attempt at luring the victim into the open.
Later on, the suspect asks Engels if she was at home, to which the victim answered affirmatively. She told her ex-boyfriend that she was at home cooking and would soon go to walk her dog.
Unbeknownst to Engels, her ex-boyfriend had retained a set of keys to her home and entered the property sometime after midnight with an accomplice. Locking the dog outside the house, the two suspects then attacked the victim.
“They had to gag her and she received several blows to the head, back, and ear,” the victim’s father told Sudinfo. “Then they wrapped an electric cable around her neck, tied a dressing gown to it, put her and her stomach and tied her legs with it.”
This position, doctors say, suffocated the victim. Her body was then dragged to the bathroom, where the suspects attempted to make the murder look like a suicide.
Motivated by money
The men later ransacked the house, stealing anything of value, but especially her computer and mobile phone. This was done in the hopes of getting hold of her large cryptocurrency fortune.
The East Flanders Public Prosecutor’s Office believes that this could be the motive for the crime.
“[The suspect] was always after her money,” the father said. “He’s a real psychopath. He only dressed in the most expensive brands and drove around in Porsches. Tamara had invested in cryptocurrencies. He had already cheated her out of €400,000, but she managed to block a second transaction. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
On 25 May, heavily armed police arrested the suspects on a motorway exit towards Charleroi Airport. The two suspects are set to appear in court next week.
