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Missing kids: Belgian parents take action
Authorities accused of ignoring tips on pedophile
August 21, 1996
Web posted at: 5:00 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT)LIEGE, Belgium (CNN) -- After revelations that a gang of pedophiles has been operating in Belgium, new attention is being given to the country's missing children. Meantime, investigators were being criticized Wednesday for allegedly ignoring tips from three years ago that a convicted child rapist released early from jail had resumed abducting children.
The rapist, Marc Dutroux, last week showed police a secret basement holding two sexually-abused captive girls, and led them to the buried bodies of two other girls -- Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo -- both 8 years old. About 100,000 people are expected to attend their funeral on Thursday in Liege, their hometown.
Dutroux, believed to be a key member of a child pornography ring, has also confessed to abducting at least six girls. A total of four people have been arrested and charged. It's alleged they have information which could help track down two teen-age girls -- An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks -- who were kidnapped last summer and may have been sold into prostitution in another country.
Parents organize after murders
An's mother and father credit a parents' organization devoted to missing children with keeping the case of the two girls in the public eye. Within two days of the double disappearance pamphlets had been distributed throughout Belgium, says Betty Marchal.
"Our strength is that we distribute notice of missing children very quickly," says Jean-Pierre Malmendier of the Marc and Corine Association. The association is named after Malmendier's 17-year-old daughter and a 21-year-old friend who were murdered on the same day they disappeared in 1992.
"It's in the first few hours of an investigation that peoples' memories are still fresh. Twenty-four hours later, too much is lost. Possible witnesses have forgotten what they've seen. The trail goes cold," says Malmendier.
When Marc, 21, and Corine, 17, were reported missing, police wouldn't take their parents' concerns seriously, believing the two had run away together. It was more than a week before their bodies were found.
Frustrated by the lack of police help to trace their children, Malmendier and Marc's father set out to help other parents in the same predicament.
The association claimed success earlier this year when it helped authorities find a newborn baby girl, eight days after she was kidnapped from a hospital.
Tips ignored?
Belgian newspapers reported Wednesday that in 1993 police ignored tips from an informant who said Dutroux was building secret cellars to hold girls before selling them abroad.
The same informant allegedly told investigators last year that Dutroux had offered a man the equivalent of $3,000- $5,000 to kidnap girls.
Authorities heading the search for the missing children, declined to comment on the allegations.
Brussels Bureau Chief Patricia Kelly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Belgian police target possible pedophile network - August 20, 1996
Related sites:
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
- Child Quest International
- Missing Kids International
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