Adrien Rompen, convicted Belgian murderer and prison escapee, has been recaptured in Spain after an unlikely turn of events involving a pair of French holidaymakers who inadvertently spent five days with the convicted murderer.
The episode was described in the now-viral Twitter thread "How I spent five days with a murderer on the run (I still can’t believe it)," published on Tuesday.
Thread : comment j’ai passé 5 jours avec un meurtrier en cavale (j’arrive toujours pas à y croire)
— butters stan acc (@papeeyohn) June 27, 2023
Murderer in the mountains
The circumstances are remarkable. On holiday in Spain with a friend in the small village of Montblanc in Tarragona, the young French holidaymakers stumbled upon a friendly character, Belgian "Victor", at a nearby beach.
The Twitter user, real name Myriam, described Victor as "a little strange" but he "didn't look dangerous." After some discussion Victor says he would like a tattoo from one of the French women. They agree and return to their holiday home with their Belgian friend.
But after asking the French ladies to buy his train ticket, Belgian Victor soon made himself comfortable, pitching his tent by their accommodation and proposing activities to do together. They decide to climb a nearby mountain where they will do the tattoo. At the top, Victor began to share details of his life, though these are more confusing than revealing.
In particular, the French tourists were doubtful about his relationship with his two children, who he said were spoiled and with whom he no longer spoke. Victor also admitted to having been in prison, though was vague about the details. It was not until a few days later that the Belgian national said he had "taken too much coke and screwed up."
Stirring suspicion
What especially confounded the pair of tourists was the lack of clarity about the mother of Victor's two children. This led them to question whether he might have abused his partner, a hypothesis they preferred to doubt but aroused feelings of discomfort.
"I started to feel worse and worse in his presence and avoided meeting", Myriam wrote. Yet shaking their uninvited travel buddy loose proved impossible and the three returned to the top of the mountain, with Belgian Victor bringing a large amount of alcohol. After watching the sunset, the feeling of discomfort grew until their shady Belgian companion disappeared.
"We were anxious and I started to panic," Myriam explained. The French pair decided to leave but were then joined by Victor. "We ended up going home and told him that the next day we wanted to be alone."
It was as the pair were discussing their strange acquaintance the following day that they recalled how "Victor" had let slip that his real name was Adrien. After not thinking much of this at first, the pair wondered whether they might find out a bit more about this character online.
It didn't take long searching "Adrien", "Belgian", and "wanted" to find some alarming information.
On the run
To their shock, articles with Adrien’s face came up immediately. Staring at them from news articles were all-too recognisable photos Adrien Rompen, wanted for the murder of his wife Charlène after escaping from a 20-year prison sentence. The pair had no doubt that this was the same man they had been hanging out with for days.
"Total shock, I couldn’t believe it... It was even worse than we imagined... We wondered how we could corner him without risking our lives. We were so stressed about what he could do to us,” Myriam said.
The two tourists called the Spanish police and explained to officers that they had arranged to meet Victor at 14:00, in just a few hours' time. After a long telephone call, a police vehicle pulled into the driveway.
"Right as the police car arrived, Adrien showed up all calm. I don't think he thought they had finally caught up with him. We were lucky, the police arrested him easily."
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For a time, the two tourists questioned if they had apprehended the right person. It wasn't until they saw a Belgian news piece recounting their story that they were sure that they had spent their holidays with the convicted killer.
"The moral of the story: be wary of people you don't know. You can't be too careful, there are crazy people everywhere," the French tourist concluded.
