Vermist

MISSING

I am in the habit now of reading our local newspaper. Sometimes it's an exercise in language skills and sometimes it's an exercise in frustration. I try to read as much as I can in Dutch and then I copy and paste to Google translate. There's often a bit lost in translation, but I usually get the gist of it all.

So about 3 weeks ago, I read the story of a missing 34-year old Belgian doctor who lives in a castle with his wife, who is also a doctor, and their 4 children. Sounds like a fairy tale, doesn't it? The newspaper calls him the Lord of the castle so I will too.

This is him, Lord of the Castle. His name is Stijn (like stain).

And here's his castle.

Not bad, huh.

THE FABLE

So Lord Stijn and his doctor wife, Elisabeth live with their 4 children in this castle. They bought this thing a couple of years ago for 2 million euro. Then they spent an additional 750,000 euro renovating it.

Castle = expensive to restore

Now, Dr. Elisabeth is in practice with her doctor/father. His name is Andre. Lord Stijn (stain) is a doctor too, but he is NOT in practice with wife and father-in-law Andre.

Lord Stijn = smart to stay out of the family business

The story goes that Dr. Andre wasn't so fond of his son-in-law. According to one of the Lord's childhood friends, Dr. Andre has been bad-mouthing his son-in-law all about town, even alleging incest with their youngest daughter. No evidence of this - just talk.

So, about 3 weeks ago, the wife/doctor, Elisabeth, comes home to her castle and finds a pool of blood in the hall, a spent shell casing, but no sign of the husband/doctor/lord of the castle.

She calls 911. Not really. In Belgium, and every other EU country, it is 112. So the police are called and they come to investigate. Assuming the good doctor/lord is simply injured and missing, a helicopter with thermal imaging flies over the castle estate finding nothing.

Back to the pool of blood. Must have been bigger than a bread box because the police seemed pretty certain the lord wasn't coming back. Yeah, and there was a drag trail of blood down the castle steps that stopped somewhere in the driveway. Not a good sign.

I'd say the theory he isn't coming back is spot on, but you never know.

Police are apparently optimistic that he is still alive since there's an APB for him. "He is 34, 1 meter 76 tall, white skin with dark brown eyes, dark brown hair. At the time of his disappearance he was wearing dark brown cotton trousers, a blue shirt with brown stripes and a dark brown woolen sweater. Call 0800/30.300 with any information."

THE ABOUNDING THEORIES

1) Could the blood be from an animal?

2) Did Lord Stijn stage his own disappearance?

3) Did he move to Australia?

4) Did Dr. Andre kill or hire someone to kill his son-in-law?

Door #1: Animal blood. A definite no.

Quickly ruled out. DNA analysis proves it is, in fact, that of Lord Stijn.

Door #2: A staged disappearance. Possible, but not likely.

a. There were no doors or windows broken, so . . . still possible.

b. Lord Stijn was in serious debt. After a few days of investigation, the police finally ask, "how does a young doctor and his young doctor wife buy a castle?" Answer: By getting deep in the red. Belgian doctors are not typically rich and turns out, a look at his financials indicates that in addition to the nearly 3 million on the castle, Lord Stijn also had a 2.5 million euro loss on real estate dealings last year alone and the financial probing isn't even complete yet.

Maybe a creditor killed him.

Belgian doctor = poor real estate broker

c. Word has it that Lord Stijn "came from money". The story goes that his parents were wealthy industrialists, sold their business and each of their children got "tens of millions". Sounds like enough to buy a castle.

d. If he staged his disappearance, he didn't go far because his passport was found in the castle and he left the Audi and BMW behind. Not to mention his wife and 4 children.

Door #3: A move Down Under. Possible.

Australia? Yes, apparently the good doctor/Lord was involved in a Russian religious cult and was planning to take the whole fam damily to Australia to start a new eco-friendly life. Apparently Russian religious cult members are green and call the bush home.

The Ringing Cedars. That is the name of the alleged cult. The local newspaper interviewed an ecologist familiar with this organization and she says it's wrong to call it a "religious cult". She says it is a book. Nothing more. A book encouraging a change of life to reduce your impact on the environment. Specifically with permaculture - an efficient and healthy agricultural practice.

As far as the Ringing Cedars local records go, the Lord hasn't attended a meeting or even asked for information on permaculture. Perhaps the religious cult theory was a replacement for the incest allegation?

Desperate times.

Door #4: Murdered? By his own father-in-law? A doctor himself?

Doesn't the Belgian hippocratic oath also say "first, do no harm"? Well, no, and neither does any other version. You will not find those words in any oath. That's basically a very brief summary.

As noted before, no windows or doors were broken and Lord Stijn's wife assured the police he would never let anyone in the house he did not know or else the person would have had a key.

THE TROUBLE WITH PARADISE

There was definitely trouble in paradise. The paradise of doctors and lords and castles.

The Lord's father-in-law can barely imagine the possibility of his beloved daughter's family immigrating to Australia. He wants his daughter to continue the medical practice that he established. And those 4 grandchildren - he is afraid he will never see his grandchildren if they move to that faraway land of wallabies and opera houses.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, mate. Was the Aussie venture the last straw?

On the very day after the Lord went missing, the family was scheduled to go on a holiday - not to move to Australia forever, just a family vacation. And on that very same day, the police arrest the father-in-law, Dr. Andre along with Dr. Andre's son, Peter.

They are interrogated and held for 2 days. Incidentally, Dr. Andre owns a gun. But after some forensics, it proves not to match the spent shell casing found at the scene. Dr. Andre also has the perfect alibi. He was in his office seeing patients all day. I'm not sure what Peter's alibi was, but after 2 days they were both released due to lack of evidence.

THE CHECHENS

Next day, 4 Chechens are arrested. What's a Chechen, you ask? It's a person from Chechnya - that's in Russia. I wonder if they are eco-friendly?

Anyway, there's evidence that the Chechens had a map of the castle in their car and a paper with a Belgian man's name on it.

The theory is that these Chechens were hired assassins - hired to kill Lord Stijn. But without sufficient evidence to hold them, the Chechens are released. But whose name is on the paper?

THE BELGIAN FRENCHMAN

Turns out it's Pierre. Naturally, the police come calling on Pierre. He's arrested and questioned, but again, with no real evidence, he too is released.

Ironically, Pierre is an old friend of Dr. Andre. I think a connection here would not be a stretch.

Lo and behold, a church worker comes forward and tells police on the very day Lord Stijn went missing, she observed a suspicious car near Pierre's chalet. I'm calling it a chalet because that's what the newspaper called it. In it (the suspicious car) she (the church worker) saw something covered with a sheet.

This is Pierre's chalet

With this new information, the police search Pierre's chalet and surrounding property finding nothing.

THE SNOW

Then it snowed and the search was called off.

And this snow remained for nearly 2 weeks because it was bitter cold here in Belgium!

Every few days, there is a new newspaper article with an update on the situation. I exercise my language skills and frustration, but still no sign of the missing doctor.

Then suddenly, two weeks after he went missing, a video from India surfaces with the missing Lord in it. He traded Australia for India? He definitely wouldn't need as much money, but . . . this video seems to be completely coincidental and he is probably not in India.

Finally the snow melts. A second search of the chalet is conducted. Observers report seeing a crane on the property, the medical examiner, the judicial lab team.

Alas, buried in a pit in the forest at Pierre's chalet is the body of a man.

Along with the Chechens, Dr. Andre, his son Peter, and his old friend Pierre are arrested. The Chechens are again released, but the other three are not.

Dr. Andre, his son Peter and his old friend Pierre

Australia = last straw = desperate measures?

An autopsy will be performed, but the man, shot in the chest and buried in the pit in the forest of Pierre's chalet is white with dark brown eyes and dark brown hair. He is wearing dark brown trousers, a blue shirt with brown stripes and a dark brown woolen sweater.

Some fairy tales don't have a happy ending.