WEBVTT - Incompetence or Conspiracy? [8] 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:03.520 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely 0:00:03.520 --> 0:00:07.400 those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast, 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:11.480 and do not represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, or 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:15.800 their employees. This podcast also contained subject matter which may 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:19.599 not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:41.800 It was a cold day on December thirteenth, nineteen ninety five. 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:45.680 Julie and Melissa had been missing for almost seven months. 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:51.240 Inspector Rene Micheaux of the Gendarmerie, along with two colleagues 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:55.040 and a locksmith, pulled up to de True's residence on 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:58.480 one twenty eight Rue de philipp Fil and Marcinelles in 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:03.640 the municipality of Charges. They had the house to themselves, 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:06.520 as Dedru was in jail for stealing a truck and 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:11.160 kidnapping his accomplices. The search was officially linked to the 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:13.959 car theft scheme and should have been carried out by 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:18.440 the municipal police, but the gendarmes. Michaud managed to unsurp 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:21.280 the warrant and carry out the search with his own 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:25.840 team of gendarmes. If you recall, the gendarmes were already 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.080 secretly surveilling d Tru's house, as he was their main 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:33.280 suspect in the disappearance of Julie LeJean and Melissa Rousso. 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.479 Michaud sent his colleagues upstairs to see what they con 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.479 find and headed down to the basement with the locksmith. 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:47.200 The team upstairs found several suspicious items, including chloroform sedatives, 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:53.440 vaginal ointment video cassettes, and a speculum used by gynecologists 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:58.559 for vaginal examinations. While searching the basement, the locksmith thought 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.440 that he'd heard voices of che children, and he said 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:08.680 to Michaud, listen, I hear voices quick. Michaud also heard 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:12.720 what he would later call quote whispers and abruptly shouted 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:18.880 to his colleagues upstairs to shut up. After Michau yelled 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:23.320 shut up to quiet his colleagues, the voices stopped. After 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.600 a period of silence, Michaud said that it must have 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.440 been voices playing in the street outside or something. When 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:34.200 the locksmith insisted about what he'd heard, Michaud turned to 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.320 him and said, who's the cop here? You or me 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:42.200 sec rom After that, the search was over and the 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.680 team left the house. Julie and Melissa were in that 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:53.760 hidden dungeon and alive, literally a few feet away. 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:04.680 Hums who understands emotions, And I told them it is 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:08.600 a very exceptional that somebody abducts two children at the 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.520 same time. Should have been the yen of it in 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:16.120 nineteen eighty six, but my god, it was just a beginning. 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.079 I think Belgium was a paralyzed for perforts in those days. 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:34.560 Welcome to la monstre. I'm your host, Matt Graves. The 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:37.800 unsuccessful search of the Truce House where Julie and Melissa 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:42.000 were suffering in silence, is a sickening tragedy. It's crazy 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:44.080 when you think about it that the John Darmes have 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:46.960 been surveilling his house for four months already with their 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:51.240 secret Operation Othello. There were countless opportunities to get a 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.920 search warrant during these four months, but the Gendarmerie kept 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:58.280 it a secret and never informed the judge. Also, they 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.440 didn't want anyone else to search the house. In fact, 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:04.720 this failed search wasn't even supposed to be done by 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:08.320 the Gendarmerie. The warrant was to look for clues related 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:12.000 to the stolen car case, but the Gendarmes pulled some 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.480 strings and got the green light to do the search themselves. 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:18.600 You would think that this was a good outcome. Rather 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.680 than stolen cars. They should have been focused on finding 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:25.720 the girls. But the locksmith who accompanied me show downstairs 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.240 had no idea that they were looking for kidnap victims. 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:34.520 When later questioned under oath, this lockmuth said, I don't. 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:37.000 Know a single person who would have left the basement 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.840 after what they heard if they knew they were searching 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:43.480 for your girls. I cannot conceive how they could stop 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.080 searching after hearing such clear voices. 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:51.120 As mentioned, the gendarmes found several video cassettes and collected 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.240 them as evidence. One of the tapes was a recording 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:57.640 of a television show dedicated to the disappearance of Julie 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:01.680 and Melissa. Another one was footage of de True himself 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:05.599 building the dungeon in that very house. If you're looking 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.720 for Julian Melissa and you have reports of girls being 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:11.480 seen in the house, these two tapes alone are a 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:14.839 clear indication that you're on the right track. But the 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:19.599 incompetence of the gendarmerie can't be underestimated. One of the 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:23.120 gendarmes searching upstairs would later claim that he didn't even 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:26.880 know they were looking for little girls. To make matters worse, 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:31.159 several of the tapes included pornographic material, including one of 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:35.200 the True raping a miner. The contents of these tapes 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.920 supposedly weren't discovered until nineteen ninety nine because no one 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:42.159 bothered to properly analyze them. In fact, some of the 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.880 tapes simply went missing, and several of them were actually 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:48.440 returned to the True after he got out of jail 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:52.479 for car theft in March nineteen ninety six, including the 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:56.520 one featuring him raping a miner. Is this level of 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:01.960 incompetence even possible or with something else going on on 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:05.960 that day, December sixteenth, nineteen ninety five. Had the gendarmes 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.600 done their job, Julian Melissa would have been rescued and 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:12.919 reunited with their parents, leading to the possible rescue of 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:16.240 Anne and Effia. The True and his accomplices would have 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.760 been stopped before Sabine and Letitia were ever even abducted. 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.520 It's heartbreaking to know how close these parents were to 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:28.440 avoiding such a horrible tragedy. Nothing about the Operation Othello 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.440 or the bungled search had come out to the public 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:35.120 until after the Parliamentary Commission prided out of a Gendarmes 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:39.279 under oath on live television, a camera was filming the 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.600 faces of the parents as they listened to Inspector Micheau 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:45.920 squirm on the hot seat. You can see the wary 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.479 face of Julie's father, Jean de ni Le Jeanne, as 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:53.200 he digests what he was hearing. He's a stoic man, 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:56.720 still loved by millions of people in this country, a 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.000 working class man of the people who labored in a factory, 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.599 paid his taxes and raised a modest family. He maintained 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:08.159 his composure, but couldn't hold back the tears from streaming 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.240 down his face. To add insult to injury, the parents 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.840 learned that Inspector Micheaux even returned to d Tru's house 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:21.000 for a second search of the property again on December nineteenth. 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.280 He was just steps away from Julia and Melissa for 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:28.520 a second time and still found nothing. When the Parliamentary 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:31.840 Commission started, none of the parents knew anything about the 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:35.240 fact that the true had been the gendarmes number one suspect. 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:48.800 Shortly after their girls actually disappeared. 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:54.480 The girls disappeared the twenty fourth of June and from 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.960 the seventh of July they had marked the two as 0:07:58.000 --> 0:07:59.040 their top suspect. 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.800 I spoke to Karine Russeau, the mother of Melissa. 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.520 They were all aware of Operational Othello, and that they 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:11.360 were supposed to surveil the activities of Dureux. And it 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:15.000 dragged on and on, and the fiasco of Operation Othello 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.760 was never understood by us nor by the Parliamentary Commission. 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.240 I asked her if she thought that Inspector Micheaux was 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.880 just stupid or was it something else, because his level 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:29.440 of incoonfidence was just so unbelievable. 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:39.520 It's complicated because his incompetence is incomprehensible. When I saw 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.520 him at the Commission, I had the impression I was 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.240 in front of a man who was afraid. The gendarmes 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:50.080 seemed like okay, guys who wanted to find the girls, 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.079 but at the same time they seemed like they were 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:54.120 afraid of everything. 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.400 The failure of the Gendarmerie to question the true and 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:01.720 to properly search his property, it's really hard to square. 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:05.400 The Parliamentary Commission did a good job of exposing the 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.720 incompetence of the Gendarmeriy, no matter how hard they tried 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:12.680 to hide it. The official conclusion of this commission is 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:15.520 that what the gendarmes did and failed to do was 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.080 indeed a fiasco, but that nothing concrete could be found 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:23.480 to prove that the true was somehow protected. I have 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:27.280 a strong distaste for conspiracy theories, but as I study 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:31.199 the facts, I'm starting to have doubts about the official line. 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:35.080 While reading cariin Rousseau's memoirs, I stumbled across an odd 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.839 anecdote about something that happened in December nineteen ninety five, 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:43.040 around the same timeframe of the failed search of Dtru's house. 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:46.240 She wrote about a visit they received at the time 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:51.240 from a gendarme named Valert Martin. According to Karine's account, 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.319 he came to their house in early December claiming that 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.800 one of the girls had been located. After having read 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.920 almost everything on this case, this was detail I'd never 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:04.640 heard about. The true affair is full of rabbit holes, 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:06.880 and when I read this, I thought this must have 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:11.400 just been something that was misinterpreted or perhaps overplayed. I 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:14.480 had to hear it straight from Karin directly and really 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:18.400 understand how it played out, because if true, it flies 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:21.280 in the face of the conclusions of the Parliamentary Commission, 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.040 the Trial of the Truth and the majority of the 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:25.800 Belgian press. Today. 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:32.480 It was the Gendarmes Valle Martin, a field officer working 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:35.320 on the investigation of the disappearance of Julian and Melissa. 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:37.920 It was with him that we had the most contact. 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.560 He was the investigator that came not every day, but 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:45.240 at least every week. He stayed in contact with us 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:47.439 to see if we had any news on our side, 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:50.000 and we asked him for news, but he never had any. 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.080 So he came by at the beginning of December, but 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:58.680 I can't remember the exact date, and at that time 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:02.280 he told us that there was an operation under way 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.280 and that we might be able to open Champagne by 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:10.760 Christmas because we might have the girls back by then. 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:12.880 He said we had to keep it on the down 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.720 low and sit tight, but there was hope, and he 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:19.000 said the problem was that they couldn't do anything for 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.880 the moment because they had located one of the girls 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:24.280 but not both of them, and if they undertook an 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.480 operation for just one of the girls, because they knew 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:30.560 where she was, they could put the other girl at risk. 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.319 So they had located one of the girls, but they 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.880 needed to wait to know where the other one was 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:40.360 before making a move. That's what he said. That was 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:42.000 what he explained to us at that time. 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:45.480 I didn't want to offend Kareem, but this is a 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.800 huge statement with serious implications. I had to ask her 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.600 if there were others who had witnessed this conversation. 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:00.880 At the time. Jean Denis and Luisa Lege and my 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.319 husband and I were here. They were almost always here 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:06.760 at the house, and also my brother and sister in 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:10.000 law were here at the time. They were practically living 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:14.680 here to help us with everything. And we asked him 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.240 which of the girls it was, and he didn't want 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.719 to answer because it was too hard, and we understood 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.840 in a way, we didn't even want to know which 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:29.079 of the girls it was, because imagine if we had learned, 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.800 for example, that they found Melissa but they couldn't save 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:36.559 her because they hadn't found Julie, or the other way around. 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.719 It's really hard. I think we didn't even want to know. 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:46.000 But my brother took him aside and asked which girl 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.880 it was, and the gendarmes told him that the girl 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:53.439 they had located was Melissa, and he told me afterwards. 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.760 This moment was a tipping point for me. There I 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.240 was sitting with Karine Rousseau on her back porch, less 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:05.400 than a mile from where this whole tragedy started. I 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:07.840 had assumed that this story was some sort of rumor, 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.520 but she was absolutely adamant. And it wasn't just her 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:15.560 who'd witnessed this event, but her husband, brother and sister 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.560 in law, and the mother and father of Julie Lejeanne. 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.000 But I don't know, because there was never any follow 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:28.720 up on this because after this we never saw the 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:34.160 gendarme again. From the beginning of January, they told us 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:38.240 that the investigators couldn't contact us anymore, and that we 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:41.040 couldn't have contact with the Gendarme Marie any longer. 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.280 I couldn't believe what I was hearing and maybe overstep 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:48.880 the boundaries of the interview by asking how they didn't 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:51.440 just grab him by the neck and force the details 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.079 out of him. What did he know? Did he really 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:54.800 have something? 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:03.319 We had confidence in them, We had so much hope, 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:06.360 and what he was telling us was that the thread 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:10.480 that we were holding on to. So we respected what 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:13.760 they said and what they asked of us. They said, 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:17.840 to stay discreete, don't do anything. Something's going to happen. 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:21.880 So we were holding on so tightly to that thread 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:25.920 of hope that we did whatever they asked of us. 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:30.160 And after when we realized during the Parliamentary Commission, when 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:34.200 we discovered Operation Othello and the search of Dutru's house 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:39.800 and that he'd been arrested in December, etc. We realized 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:44.160 that this happened exactly at the same time of the 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:49.840 searches of Dutruz house in Marsinel by the gendarmes from Charlois, 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:56.000 So it happened at that time. So was there at 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:58.960 that time an operation planned to save the girls that failed. 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:02.560 I asked her if she ever followed up with this 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:04.560 gendarme after everything came out. 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.880 After the girls were found, we went to see him 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.720 at his house during the month of September nineteen ninety six, 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:15.240 and we asked him for answers because he sent us 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.960 a letter where he wrote, quote, I will never excuse 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:23.320 those who prevented me from working. Yeah, And so we 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:25.760 found him and said, now you're going to have to 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.880 explain who were the people who prevented you from working? 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:34.720 Who are they and what happened? And he was in tears, 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.480 and his wife was in tears, and she was begging us, saying, no, 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:41.720 don't try to find out. We're going to lose everything. 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:45.800 You don't understand what it's like for gendarmes in the genre, Marie, 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:49.280 you can't talk. She was explaining this and asking us 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:54.320 to leave and saying that they'd lose everything. And I said, no, 0:15:55.680 --> 0:16:01.400 we lost everything. We lost our girl, and now your 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.680 tears and your story aren't going to make me cry. 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:10.040 But he never said anything. And when the Parliamentary Commission happened, 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:14.720 a deputy relayed our question. He asked him about this 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:21.240 very directly in public, and he said, quote, I don't remember. 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.640 I tried to track down the former gendarmes Valerire Martin 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.840 and even his wife, but they've both since passed away. 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:35.080 I spoke to an ex colleague of his who's still 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:38.400 an active duty police officer in Liege, but he wouldn't 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.840 say a word about it. In fact, he said he'd 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:43.880 never even heard of this story and was quote stunned 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:46.520 by what I was telling him. But I know that's 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:49.640 not true. As he was at the Parliamentary Commission When 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:53.160 this question was asked directly to Valer Martin, so I 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:57.120 decided it wasn't worth continuing the discussion. He clearly wasn't 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:01.400 being frank with me. The practical consequence of this are significant. 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:04.480 If the Gendarmerie had located one of the girls in 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:09.280 December of nineteen ninety five, it changes everything. Simply put, 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.800 it would mean that the explanation of the Gendarmery, confirmed 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.800 by the Parliamentary Commission in nineteen ninety seven and the 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:19.360 Court of Appeals in two thousand and four, is a lie. 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:24.120 You shouldn't underestimate that the gen Armerie was a military structure, 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:30.040 so they think strategically, they accept collateral damage. It was 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:33.600 not a police force as you or me probably would 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.480 think of a police force. It was a power mechanism. 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:39.840 This is the voice of Jan Fermont, one of the 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:43.199 lawyers who represented Letitia Dalles during the trial of the 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:47.000 true in two thousand and four. Several notable journalists, as 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.120 well as victim's family members, suggest that he could provide 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.280 insight into various aspects of the case. 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.080 The geen Armie had an internal system where there was 0:17:55.119 --> 0:18:00.000 an indication that the gendarme was involved in criminal activity 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:06.119 was an internal ban on communication to the prosecutor. It 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:09.679 had to go up the hierarchy first, and only with 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:13.840 the authorization of the hierarchy it could go to the prosecution. 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.679 So this was a culture and that has led, for 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:22.480 example to the fact that the National Drug Bureau of 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:25.879 the Belgian Gian dal Marie, who was working very closely 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:29.040 together with the DEA at that time, actually became one 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:33.240 of the main drug dealers on the Belgian market because 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:38.000 and the gendarme who found out that actually the cocaine 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:44.880 was his bosses. If he ran into that by chance, 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.600 after going ten times up the hierarchy and saying we 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.800 have a problem. There are kilos of cocaine passing and 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:56.159 my bosses involved in that, he actually at some point 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.720 said the law says that I should go to the prosecutor, 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:03.720 went out of its own initiative to the prosecute, and 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:08.800 the next day he was removed from the job. That 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:13.760 guy ended up, after forty years of career as an 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:18.679 investigator as a specialized investigator, ended up washing cars in 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.920 the garage of the Jean Darmerie. And there are many, 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:27.200 many actually incredible stories in which the Jean Armerie got 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:31.040 involved in that period, members of the Jean Deremerie putting 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:33.119 a bomb in the car of another member of the 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:38.960 Geen Deremebrie which happened here in Brussels, trying to kill 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:43.600 with the machine gun fire another member of the Geen Eremerie, 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:48.800 which happened to Majere Vernaye. It's rather heavy stuff and 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:52.760 all this is the eighties and the nineties. We are 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:56.439 in the middle of a period where all kinds of 0:19:56.480 --> 0:20:00.840 stuff is happening in the Geen Armerie, which is outrageou, 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:06.160 which is far beyond what any normal person would expect 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:09.000 or would believe that it's all reality. 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:13.440 I asked him about this gendarme named Valeris Martin, who 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:16.360 at one point told Julie in Melissa's families that one 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:18.919 of the girls had been located. And he told me 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:21.879 an interesting story about a scene that played out at 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:25.000 trial in two thousand and four. You'll hear him mention 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:31.440 the name Lisage. Lossage was valers Martin's boss at the Gendarmerie. 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.480 He was called to testify at the trial along with 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:37.159 Valeris Martin and another gendarmes. 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:40.919 So the next day, when we come into the courtroom. 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:44.760 Somebody comes to me and says, do you know that 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:49.160 Losage and his two other colleagues received a long briefing 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:54.879 yesterday from their former superior in geen Armerie what they 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:59.399 should say and what they shouldn't say. And this former 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:02.879 Colonel de Geen Darmodi, drove them in his car here 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:06.280 and will be present in the room. 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:10.960 So the three gendarmes were subpoenaed at the core case. Strangely, 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:14.680 their former boss, a high ranking officer in the Gendarmerie, 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:18.000 spent the days before briefing them and then actually drove 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:19.040 them to the hearings. 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:21.960 You see this guy leaning against the door in the 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:25.760 back with a leather jacket, and this is Colonel such 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.359 and so. So there are, one by one the three 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:37.399 called Lussage comes in before anything else. Lage is nothing 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:41.560 to say. The President tells him, maybe please wait a second, 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:43.600 because at least I want to ask you your name. 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.680 Of course, after some time some questions are asked. And 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:50.439 the other thing that I said, I'm nothing, I know 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:55.080 nothing to say, which I think is an absolutely intolerable 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:58.920 attitude because he is on the road. I mean, you're 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:01.720 a policeman you're working with the money of the taxpayers 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:05.080 to solve the case. And then when the court asks 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:07.640 you to ask to respond to a question, you say, 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:12.000 I don't want to talk to you. Nothing. The second 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:17.160 member of the team comes in and plays a piece 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:22.320 of theater. Yeah yeah, Julia, Melissa, Yeah, yeah, I remember. No, 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:25.920 I don't know. I don't remember that. No, no, I 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:30.200 I know I worked on this case, but no, no, no, 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:33.240 it's a long time ago. Then the turtm and I 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:35.840 think that was what I comes in and so he 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:38.000 comes in. Instead of going to the witness stand, he 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:40.920 comes to the bench where I say, I'm sitting next 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:46.240 to jan. This policeman even doesn't greet the court. He 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:53.800 immediately comes to gen I and he says, cause you come, 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:55.760 prete Tooma. I understood everything. 0:22:55.800 --> 0:23:02.040 Now says yeah, but please go to the witness stand 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:05.119 and tell the court, because if you know anything, please 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:06.600 take the stand and say what you know. 0:23:07.200 --> 0:23:10.040 And then nothing. So I got a little bit angry 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:13.959 because you can't ask directly questions. So as a civil party, 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:16.520 you have to go through the court. Say please, mister president, 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:19.520 could you ask the witness such and such information. Then 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:21.920 the president decides whether yes, or no you'll ask question. 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:25.440 So I said, could you please ask the last witness 0:23:25.600 --> 0:23:31.879 why he is crying? Why he is doing this? No answer? 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:35.400 Could you ask the witness if maybe he is scared 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:39.359 of somebody? Is he maybe scared of this gentleman standing 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:42.840 against leaning against the door? Who is Colonel such and 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:46.080 so from the gean armerie who brought these three people 0:23:46.200 --> 0:23:48.880 yesterday in his personal car to this place, who gave 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:51.719 them a briefing the day before yesterday about what they 0:23:51.720 --> 0:23:54.560 could say, what they could not say? Is he maybe 0:23:54.600 --> 0:23:58.439 afraid of making statement because this gentleman is watching what 0:23:58.520 --> 0:24:02.080 he is saying? Nothing, I'd answer to the presentic is 0:24:02.160 --> 0:24:04.600 really impossibly. And then the President of the court turned 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:09.240 to me and said, I understand your frustration. I understand 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:12.199 we are all frustrated. But what do you want me 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:15.639 to do? Torture is not allowed, and that's approximately the 0:24:15.680 --> 0:24:19.240 only thing I see what I can do to make 0:24:19.320 --> 0:24:23.919 them speak. He was right, he comes forced them to speak. 0:24:24.160 --> 0:24:29.800 The attitude of keeping the information to themselves, not sharing it, 0:24:30.280 --> 0:24:33.840 trying to keep as many people out of the discussion 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:37.600 as they could actually went even on during the trial, 0:24:38.359 --> 0:24:43.080 and they organized it. Obviously the three of them playing 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:49.679 some kind of game, not to get involved in real questioning. 0:24:50.200 --> 0:24:51.400 It was an organized thing. 0:24:52.000 --> 0:24:57.640 I mean, I think it's an indication of how keen 0:24:57.840 --> 0:25:02.720 they were, or how worried the were about being transparent 0:25:02.800 --> 0:25:17.879 and open about what actually happens. 0:25:18.840 --> 0:25:22.240 The month of December nineteen ninety five was a pivotal 0:25:22.280 --> 0:25:26.080 time in this affair. On the sixth of December, the 0:25:26.160 --> 0:25:29.960 true was detained for car theft and kidnapping of adults. 0:25:30.640 --> 0:25:34.679 On the thirteenth and nineteenth of December, Inspector Micheaud of 0:25:34.720 --> 0:25:38.600 the Gendarmeriy executed searches of the house where Julian Melissa 0:25:38.640 --> 0:25:42.800 were hidden without finding them, And right around this same time, 0:25:42.960 --> 0:25:46.640 a gendarmes told the families of Julian Melissa that one 0:25:46.640 --> 0:25:48.960 of the girls had been located and that they were 0:25:48.960 --> 0:25:52.800 waiting to locate both of the girls before making any moves. 0:25:53.320 --> 0:25:56.400 When the parents never heard back from Valerer Martin, they 0:25:56.400 --> 0:25:59.720 of course agitated with the Gendarmerie to get more information. 0:26:00.720 --> 0:26:04.800 Valer Martin was censured by his superiors after word got 0:26:04.840 --> 0:26:07.560 out about what he'd said. I've seen a copy of 0:26:07.600 --> 0:26:09.960 this century which is in the case file, and it 0:26:10.080 --> 0:26:13.880 ends with the following sentence quote, I remind you that 0:26:14.080 --> 0:26:19.120 no details of any kind, including new information, verifications carried out, 0:26:19.440 --> 0:26:23.080 or any information about the investigation, can be communicated to 0:26:23.160 --> 0:26:27.960 the parents, even for reasons of humanity unquote. The hopeful 0:26:27.960 --> 0:26:31.080 news about locating the girls was followed by a wall 0:26:31.160 --> 0:26:35.080 of silence, the silence that Karen wrote about in her 0:26:35.160 --> 0:26:38.480 journal entry on December twenty seventh, nineteen ninety five. 0:26:38.680 --> 0:26:42.360