The mystery surrounding the murder of a teenage girl in Antwerp in 1999 has been solved 25 years later, the Antwerp prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday.
Thanks to DNA testing, a 51-year-old suspect was identified and arrested in Rome last year and has since been extradited to Belgium.
The lifeless body of the victim, a 17-year-old Romanian girl, had been found on 16 May 1999 in central Antwerp, with about twenty lacerations caused by a sharp object.
Witnesses reported seeing the teenager, accompanied by her alleged pimp, shortly before her death in a bar, in an area known for its sex work activities. Additionally, an individual was seen fleeing the scene. He was later revealed as the suspect, who was living in Belgium under aan alias and left the country after the young girl’s death, successfully evading law enforcement, despite the extensive investigation carried out at the time.
The Antwerp criminal police reopened the case, designating a new examining magistrate. In 2020, at their request, the National Institute of Forensic Science and Criminology was asked to review examine the DNA aspect of the investigation. In a breakthrough, advancements in science identified the genetic profile of a male individual from a glove left at the crime scene.
The suspect’s trail was eventually traced back to Italy, where he was apprehended on 21 August last year.
His arrest warrant was extended for a second time by the Antwerp council chamber, the prosecutor’s office stated on Tuesday.
