A man suspected of involvement in the murder of Baroness Myriam Lechien, perpetrated on Wednesday morning in Lasne, has been detained, media outlets in the IPM group report.
The public prosecutor’s office of Walloon Brabant declined to comment on the circumstances of the murder or the identities of the people involved, simply reporting that “a woman in her 70s living in Ohain (Lasne) was shot dead in front of her home.”
According to media reports, the victim is Baroness Myriam Lechien, second wife of Baron Guy Ullens de Schooten Whettnall, a Belgian businessman, patron of the arts, philanthropist and collector of contemporary art. Specialist sources say his fortune is estimated at over €2 billion.
His son, Nicolas Ullens de Schooten, born in 1965, fired a gun on Wednesday at around 10 a.m. in front of the property where the baron lived with his second wife, and reportedly shot the 70-year-old baroness, who died before the emergency services arrived.
The Federal Judicial Police Laboratory, a forensic doctor, a magistrate from the public prosecutor’s office and a ballistics expert went to the scene.
An investigating judge has been assigned to the case and the investigation has been entrusted to the federal judicial police.
The alleged perpetrator, former State Security officer Nicolas Ullens de Schooten, has been detained. His name had already been mentioned in an investigation for breach of professional secrecy.
According to some sources, the motive for the murder could be linked to inheritance problems. It was said that Baroness Myriam Lechien was squandering the fortune of her husband, who had suffered a stroke.
However, the Walloon Brabant public prosecutor’s office did not confirm any of these hypotheses.
