Belgian serial killer who made a career of kidnapping, raping, torturing and killing girls and female teenagers. Seven years after his arrest in 1996, his widely publicized trial took place in 2004. Dutroux was convicted of all charges, along with the murder of a suspected former accomplice, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
An unemployed electrician, he lived in a dilapidated home in Marcinelle, near the French border, where he had a treasure trove of porno videos and photos, many of which showed him abusing young girls. As kids had been disappearing, the community was on alert and when he was seen picking up a 14-year old, someone got the license number of his car and the cops investigated. In the basement they found that he had a 14-year old girl who had vanished three months prior.
In another house that he owned, they found two graves in the garden of two eight-year old girls who had been kidnapped in June 1995. They had been raped, tortured and abused for eight months, then starved to death. Five other people were implicated in the case. In 1989, Dutroux had been given 13 years in prison for raping five young girls between the ages of 12 and 19, but had been released in three years. His pattern dated back to at least 1983 when he was charged in the rape of a 50-year old woman. The kids that he picked up were not usually local, he found them on the streets of Prague and other major cities.
At Dutroux’s capture, Belgium erupted in outrage and fury, people demonstrating on the streets at the possibility of his release. As early as September 1995, Dutroux’s own mother had urged police to investigate her son, saying, “He is not a normal person.”
Though his childhood had been no different from her other four children, he had shown cruelty and greed from youth. He left home at 18 to work as a handyman and at 20, on 3 March 1976, he married a woman with whom he had two sons, now 19 and 17 (in 1996). An abusive husband who beat his wife, he divorced on 24 January 1985. By then he was involved with Michelle Martin, a former teacher later convicted as an accomplice to the rapes.
He and Michelle married on 16 December 1988 and when Dutroux was released from prison in 1992, they quickly acquired at least six houses, all inexpensive and run-down, in Charleroi and other towns in southwest Belgium. Living on $1,300 a month unemployment, he nonetheless had a healthy bank account. Police suspected that he was trafficking in guns, pornography and prostitution. They confiscated stolen goods that they found but did not arrest Dutroux.
In the summer of 1995, the abductions began along with several violent episodes. On 22 August 1995, two vacationing girls disappeared, ages 17 and 19. They had been snatched, chloroformed and shoved in a van. On 7 December, Dutroux was arrested for car theft. When police investigated his home they heard the girl’s voices but did not find the cell that Dutroux had built in the basement. When he was released from jail in March, he found the girls dead of starvation. He was so angry at the neglect of his colleague, Weinstein, that he drugged him and buried him alive in the garden.
Other girls were disappearing from the local villages, young teenagers. Finally Dutroux was arrested, along with his wife, on 13 August 1996. He broke down under interrogation and led the police to Sabine Dardenne and Letitia Delhez, both drugged and suffering multiple rapes, locked in the basement cell. Four days later Dutroux led police to the bodies of Juklie, Melissa and Weinstein. Police also uncovered a wide array of porno, including hundreds of videotapes, as well as guns and drugs. Later, more bodies were uncovered to complete the monstrous nightmare.
The Dutroux case gained worldwide attention, not only because of the horrific nature of the crimes, but also the gross negligence and amateurism of police and government officials involved in the investigation, causing the resignation and dismissal of several officials.
Link to Wikipedia biography