The public prosecutor's office and an examining magistrate in Antwerp have issued a fresh appeal for information about a murder that took place in 1993. DNA evidence has now linked the murder of Tania Van Kerkhoven (17) in the Brilschans Park in Berchem to two rapes that happened at around the same time. The investigation into murder of Tania Van Kerkhoven was reopened last year using the latest DNA testing methods. This provided fresh hope of catching the teenager’s murderer more than 30 years after she was killed.
Prosecutor’s office launches appeal for information after DNA links unsolved murder in 1993 to 2 rapes
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Two rapes near tram terminus on Antwerfp’s Left Bank
The first rape took place on 30 October 1992. A woman that had got into her car at the former tram terminus on Antwerp’s Left Bank was attacked by a man. He forced her onto the passenger seat with a knife and drove her to the Vlietbos, an area of woodland 1.5 kilometres away. There he raped the woman.
On 6 January 1993, another woman was raped near the former tram terminus. The victim had started walking the bus she wanted to catch failed to arrive. At a bring over the motorway, she was grabbed and dragged into woodland by the man. There he raped her.
Tania Van Kerkhoven’s murder
Tania Van Kerkhoven disappeared on night of 16 July 1993. She left a party in Wommelgem (Antwerp Province dropped her boyfriend off in Deurne (Antwerp) and then drove on towards her home in Edegem, south of Antwerp.
Her moped was found neatly parked, but unlocked, on Van Strydoncklaan in Deurne. Her body was found the next morning with several stab wounds in Brilschanspark in the Antwerp district Berchem, more than 10 km away.
A scream was heard in the area where her moped was found between 2:30 and 3 am. This could have been Tania, who may have been dragged into a car by force.
Tall, thin, white man aged between 25 and 30 with black hair and a moustache
The victims of the rapes have both provided detectives with a description of their attacker. The public prosecutor's office now describes him as white with black hair. He was aged between 25 and 30 at the time of the attacks. He was approximately 1.78m tall and of slim build. He spoke Dutch with an Antwerp or Waasland accent.
A photofit of the suspect made following the first rape in 1992. The victim described a man she had noticed on the tram that had stared. The victim said that he had some grey hair among his black hair and that he had a moustache. He also had large, light blue eyes.
It is not certain that this man had anything to do with the rapes or Tania Van Kerkhoven’s murder. However, the police would like to speak to him so that they can close this line of inquiry.
Other victims asked to come forward
The public prosecutor's office and police are now looking for witnesses that were in the vicinity of one of the incidents and may have noticed something or someone or that recognises the man in the photofit is People that might have been victims attacks perpetrated by the same suspect but never reported them, or whose cases were never linked to these offences, are also asked to come forward.
The police can be contacted via email opsporingen@police.belgium.eu or on the freephone number 0800/30300.