WEBVTT - La Marche Blanche [7] 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:04.240 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:08.119 those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast, 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:12.200 and do not represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, or 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:16.520 their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter which may 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:20.880 not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:29.880 No sni. 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:35.000 This is the voice of the priest who oversaw the 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:40.440 funeral of Julian Melissa broadcasted on live television Le plus Feme. 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:43.840 Don't you pok? 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:48.720 The footage is harrowing. The priest is visibly outraged and 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:52.120 flush with anger, shaking as he delivers the sermon. 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:57.160 Psa di classio gid it to. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.040 Girl Evodi lupusa Pussi. 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:08.600 He rails against the hypocrisy and pious declarations, attempting to 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.880 smother the questions that are revolted. Hearts push us to 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:23.200 ask ten thousand people thronged the streets along Saint Martin's 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.199 Basilica of Liege to say their last goodbyes to Julian 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:29.880 Melissa and support the grieving families who capture the hearts 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:34.039 of a nation. In a powerful moment, Julie's grieving father 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.080 is greeted upon arrival at the church by Paul and 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.600 Betty Marshal, the parents of Anne Marshal, who was still missing. 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:44.479 At this point, Julie's father pulled Paul and Betty into 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:48.400 a powerful and lasting embrace as the surrounding crowd erupted 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:53.440 in shouts of encouragement. By the time of the funeral, 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:57.600 more information was coming in from various interrogations that linked 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.280 a true to the disappearance of two other girls from 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:04.560 the Belgian seaside, Anne Marchal and e Fie Alambraks. Once again, 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.280 all of Belgium was hoping against hope for a positive outcome. 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:21.320 Psychobats is somebody who understands emotions. 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:24.880 And I told them it is very exceptional that somebody 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.120 abducts two children at the same time. 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.360 Should have been the end of it in nineteen six, 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:33.639 but my god, it was just the beginning. 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:37.680 I think Belgium was a paralyzed for perverts in those days. 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:52.400 Welcome Tola Monstra, I'm your host, Matt Graves. The discovery 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.440 of Julian Melissa's bodies elicited a wave of collective grief 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:00.639 that reverberated throughout the nation. How could someone murdered these 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.840 two little girls we'd seen time and time again on 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:08.480 missing persons posters and news bulletins. The coroner determined their 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:12.800 cause of death as quote deprivation of nourishment. In other words, 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:17.520 they had starved to death. The coroner also confirmed that 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:22.520 both girls had suffered sexual abuse. Words cannot express the horror. 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:28.200 Shortly after Julian Melissa's bodies were discovered, the body of 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.799 a white, middle aged man was also found at the 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:34.640 property in Sars Laoisiere. On the same day of the 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:39.600 gruesome discoveries, de True officially identified the bodies of Julian Melissa, 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:42.840 and he also confirmed the identity of the third corpse. 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.560 It was that of his former accomplice, forty four year 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:51.600 old Bernard Weinstein. You recall that in the mid nineties, 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:56.320 Weinstein was in Dtrue's criminal file as a possible accomplice. 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:00.720 They had worked together on various criminal enterprises. Weinstein was 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:04.200 a Frenchman with a long rap sheet. He'd previously been 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:07.240 convicted of theft and armed robbery and had spent nine 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:11.080 years in prison in France. He'd initially come to Belgium 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.000 to get away from his past, but soon found himself 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.360 back in the game again. Just before his death, there 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.520 was a warren out for his arrest. De True was 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:23.720 worried that if Weinstein were arrested, that he'd rat him 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.760 out about a heist they'd done together. On the day 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.800 Weinstein's body was discovered, the True admitted to murdering him. 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:34.240 He said he'd killed him because Weinstein wanted to harm 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:38.840 Julian Melissa. Now that Weinstein was dead, the True proceeded 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:42.760 to conveniently blame him for almost everything, including the kidnapping 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:47.040 of Julian Melissa. Here are extracts from de True's exact 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:48.760 statement read by an interpreter. 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.239 I broke Weinstein to my house to prevent him from 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.960 continuing to do stupid things. I had crushed up some 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:02.560 raban and addeded to his soundwitch. He fell asleep, and 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:04.919 I took him down to the cellar and explained to 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.480 U Gulie and many said that Wenstein wanted to kill him. 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.520 I then took the girls upstairs and told them that 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.000 they would be sleeping in the bedroom for a while. 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:18.919 So I put Wenstein on the bed in the cell 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.960 and twisted the chain around his neck secute with a 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:24.760 bad luck, and attached it to a ring on the wall. 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:28.000 I left it long enough for him to reach the 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:31.120 toilet bucket in the cell. I then gave him a 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:35.400 big doze and took him to his grave. He was 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:39.040 still breathing when I buried him. 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.640 So the true claiming to be the Great Savior, said 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:46.440 he murdered Weinstein to protect Julie and Melissa. But if 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:48.560 that was the case, why would he go through the 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:51.599 trouble of imprisoning him for several days before killing him. 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:56.039 Police questioned the tru's wife, Michelle Martin, about this. These 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:57.719 are her words, not her voice. 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:03.520 Mark asked me to prepare sandwiches to put Bernard Weinstein 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:08.280 to sleep. He wanted to steal five hundred thousand francs 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:13.800 that Bernard had received from his mother to buy her house. Afterwards, 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.520 Mark told me that to make Weinstein confess to where 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:21.520 he had hidden his money, he had to finally use torture. 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:27.680 He used clams placed around his testicles, and Weinstein finally 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:29.680 confessed where his money was. 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:34.760 These first hand insights in the Dutruze character paint a 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:39.400 chilling portrait of a manipulative psychopath. He took out Weinstein 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:42.360 to eliminate a thread, but made sure to rob him first, 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:47.720 he was constantly scheming to maximize advantage. Now he was 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.120 again trying to leverage the whole affair to blame Weinstein 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:54.839 for the kidnappings and to justify murdering him out of 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:59.120 concern for Julian Melissa's well being. As this was playing out, 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:04.120 authorities were interrogating one of d'true's accomplices, michel Lelievre. He 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.800 admitted to involvement with a separate kidnapping of seventeen year 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:11.120 old and martial an eighteen year old Effia Lambres from 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:15.800 the Belgian seaside. A Doc Martin's shoe matching the size 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:18.800 and description of the shoes Anne Marschall was wearing at 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:22.040 the time of her disappearance, was found in Detru's house 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:26.560 in Marcinelle. Once again, de True was cornered. There was 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:31.440 evidence directly linking him to Anne in Effie's disappearance. Sod 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:35.360 True admitted to seeing the girls, but claimed they'd left 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:40.480 with his associate. Surprise surprise, Bernard Weinstein. 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.560 Anne Marshal, and Effia Lambreks were last seen at a 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:49.400 Belgian seaside resort, and in spite of the latest discoveries, 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:53.000 police say they have not lost hope of finding them alive. 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:57.320 After clearly linking the True to Anne in Effie's disappearance 0:07:57.440 --> 0:07:59.280 and then hearing his claims that they had been with 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.640 Bernard Wants Einstein. A search was immediately undertaken at Weinstein's 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:07.320 residence in the town of Jumee. The True actually owned 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:10.040 the property and was renting the place to Weinstein at 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.400 the time. For the second time in less than a month, 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:17.160 the entire country was watching as police and work crews 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:22.080 searched a property. This time, expectations of finding the girls 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:26.880 alive were low. The families of Anne and Efia held 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:30.360 out hope until the very last minute. This is an 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:34.120 interview with a Flemish TV reporter talking to Jean Lambrecks. 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:43.040 This morning, Old Beeber's are seeing that an if you 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:48.640 could be buried in Jumet, what's a knowable use? Are 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:49.960 you thinking about this too? 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:58.480 I don't want to believe in the possibility that they're there. Yeah, 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:03.520 but yes, as long as I don't have confirmation that 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:07.480 they're there, I don't believe it or I don't want 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:08.000 to believe it. 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.800 And here's the voice of Betty Marshall, the mother of Anne, 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:16.679 which is still optimistic. 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:20.280 Yeah, yes, absolutely, I have the impression that things are 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.480 moving forward. Yeah, I'm keeping my hopes up. 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:29.880 On Saturday evening you were pessimistic and reports on television. 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:34.280 Yeah, when I heard about Chili and Melissa then. 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:37.160 And also the discovery that Anne, if you were kidnapped 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:38.079 by your psycho party. 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.600 Yeah, but I'm holding on to the idea that the 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:45.480 girls are older than the others. Maybe that has something 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.000 to do with it. Maybe, to put it bluntly, they 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:52.240 were so old. I don't know. But if that's the case, 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.960 then maybe they're live and that gives us hope. 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.880 It's tuning to imagine hoping that your daughter was sold 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:06.559 into child prostitution. That being said, it was a better 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.720 prospect than the outcome that had befallen Julian and Melissa 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:14.360 Median work crews assailed the site in Juma where Anne 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:18.800 and Effie were thought to be hidden or buried. Bad 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:22.040 weather had hampered the search, but the eyes of Belgium 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.320 and now the world were focused on this abandoned property 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:35.320 in Jumae, near Charlewa. After several days of searching without results, 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:43.600 the excavator hit a patch of unsettled earth. They knew 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.600 the change in soil cover was a sign that something 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:53.560 had been buried there. Once again, silence descended. Upon a 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:59.960 search site in Belgium. On September third, nineteen ninety six, 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:04.920 the bodies of Anne Marschal and Effie Lambrecks were found 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:09.920 where Bernard Weinstein had been living in the town of Jumae. 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:15.680 Their emaciated bodies showed signs of starvation. However, the cause 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:21.040 of death was determined as suffocation after being buried alive. 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:36.040 Horrifying beyond words, investigations into Dudru's background brought fresh hope 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.120 to the families of two teenage girls, and Marshall and 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.160 Effia Lambreks, who had also been missing for a year. 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.400 Hope died when the police confirmed human bones they dug 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:48.320 up at one of the houses owned by Mark de 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:51.000 True were those of Anne and Efia. 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:56.000 The failure of authorities to protect Julie, Melissa, Anne and 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.360 Effia was now on display for the country to see. 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:03.160 The victim's families had already been publicly critical of the 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:07.000 lack of investigation. Now those criticisms intensified. 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:11.400 At her funeral, Anne's father made it clear he believed 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.400 his daughter would still be alive. If the authorities had 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:15.280 acted quicker. 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:21.360 Paul Martial, Anne's father said, quote, for a year, we 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:23.960 were left out in the cold. If forces had been 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:27.800 mobilized like now under Bourlais, we might not have been 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:33.600 having this funeral today. Paul is referring to the King's prosecutor, 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:38.040 Michel Boulet, who you heard from in episode four. Bourlet 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.760 and investigating judge Jean Marc Conrad were the only two 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:46.359 officials who were exempt from criticism because, unlike other jurisdictions, 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:49.480 they jumped into action when the cases landed on their desk. 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:54.360 Across Belgium, anger in the streets was beginning to spill over. 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:59.120 Any time the True was transported, a huge police presence 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.360 was required to keep keep the crowds at bay, who 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.800 smashed barriers and tried to overwhelm police to get at him. 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.680 As people learned of the True's previous crimes of child 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:13.400 abduction and rape in his early release from prison, the 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.600 anger started shifting towards the judicial system. 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.520 Public outrage at the catalog of atrocities attributed to this 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:24.920 man has escalated into nationwide anger at the system which 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:29.600 allowed the True and his accomplices to operate unchecked and 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:34.000 at will for years Belgium justice is on trial. 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:40.280 The King's prosecutor Michel Bourlat and investigating judge Jean Marc 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:45.720 Conrad became the lone symbols of hope for Belgium justice 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:48.920 with support from the victim's families. Also came support from 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:52.680 the public. The two took on the case with zeal 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.440 and began to put the pieces together, investigating the True 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.600 and his accomplices not only for the six missing girls, 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.280 but for their possible involvement in a much larger child 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:08.079 trafficking network. They quickly started focusing on a corrupt businessman 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:12.720 with political connections named Michel Nihoul, who had close contact 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.040 with the True in his accomplice Michel Lelievre around the 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:20.360 time of the last abduction of Letitia Dalles. Michel Leoul 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:24.920 was often referred to as Jean Michel. In the days 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:28.080 leading up to Letitia's disappearance, there were no less than 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.520 thirty three phone calls between Nihoul, de True and his 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:38.200 accomplice Michel Lelievre. Furthermore, on the day after Letitia's disappearance, 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:42.040 Nihoule gave the True and Le Lievre a thousand ecstasy 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.600 pills with a market value of around fifteen thousand dollars 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:50.800 at the time. In early police interviews, Michel Le Lievre 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:53.520 said that the True and Nihoul were trying to get 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:57.520 him involved in a human trafficking scheme with them, but 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:01.120 he claimed he didn't want anything to do with it. Finally, 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:04.480 Letitia de Les testified that one of her first memories 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.680 after waking up into True's house after being kidnapped was 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:11.680 overhearing a telephone conversation between De True and a certain 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:16.040 quote Jean Michel, where De True had gleefully exclaimed that 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:20.640 it all worked out. Nioull was arrested and his mugshot 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:24.440 was plastered all over the media. I remember this picture 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:28.680 as looking like the embodiment of sleaziness, his pudgy face, 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:33.280 unshaven after hours of interrogation, and his shark eyes peering 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:37.840 into the camera with scorn. Nioul's face became the symbol 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:43.160 of high level connected corruption in Belgium. Not long after 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.720 the rescue of Sabine and Letitia, the prosecutor Boulet and 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:50.960 investigating Judge Conrad were invited to a potluck spaghetti dinner 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:55.400 thrown by Letitia's family and community members to celebrate their rescue. 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:58.880 When a photo of this dinner was published in a newspaper, 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:03.880 De True, whose newly appointed attorneys, protested that Conrad's presence 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:06.600 at this dinner was a violation of the principle of 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:12.160 objectivity that governs investigating judges. It wasn't a problem that 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:16.160 Bourlai was there, as he was a prosecutor. However, Conrad 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:20.840 was an investigating judge whose neutrality was sacricynct. When the 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.880 High Court of Appeal was called to deliberate on this matter, 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:28.480 the public was immediately skeptical. Many people felt that this 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:31.680 was a pretext to take out an investigating judge who 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:34.840 was getting too close to the elite powerbrokers with links 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:39.160 to a child trafficking ring. Their skepticism grew into anger 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:41.920 when the decision to suspend Conrad was rendered. 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:47.040 Belgium's Supreme Court agreed, with lawyers acting for Mark de True, 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:51.400 that the judge had lost his objectivity. A week of 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:55.240 wildcat strikes and demonstrations all over the country followed the 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:59.480 dismissal of Conrad, whose investigations into the pedophile gang made 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:05.840 him a nutal hero. Sirens sounding firemen turned hoses on 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:09.520 the law courts, the nation's bikers and Hell's Angels, three 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.359 thousand of them drove through the capital in protest. 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:19.000 All hell was breaking loose in the streets of Belgium. 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:22.440 To understand the context, you have to consider that since 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:26.000 the nineteen eighties, there were a slew of unresolved affairs 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.560 in Belgium where police and government officials were suspected of 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:34.520 cover ups. This affair was different. The public had adopted 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:38.439 the victims and their families into their hearts. We were 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:42.440 talking about children here who were brutally abused and murdered. 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.320 First there was shock at the discovery and what had 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:50.520 happened to these girls. Then there was anger at a 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:53.320 judicial system that allowed a man like the True out 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:58.399 of prison. Now there was rage against the entire institution 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.960 of the Belgian state. Remember that Mark the True had 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.159 already been convicted of kidnapping and raping girls in the 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.439 eighties and only served a few years of a relatively 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:12.920 light sentence. People were beginning to believe that there was 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:15.920 a high level cover to hide the states in competence, 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:21.000 or even worse, to protect powerful people. As you heard 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:24.719 in the CNN cliff, Hell's Angels descended upon Brussels, and 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:30.480 fire departments turned their hoses against court houses. Imagine the 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.800 scene of entire fire department brigades pulling up to the 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:37.800 Supreme Court and giving it a good hosing down. The 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:42.000 symbolism was powerful. The firemen were rebelling against the judicial 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.000 system that they saw as dirty and corrupt and in 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:48.720 need of cleaning up. This was a pivotal moment in 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.840 the history of this country. If one of the parents 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.240 would have grabbed a megaphone and called for the people 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:58.440 to burn the city down, I'm convinced it would have happened. Instead, 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:01.720 they called for citizens to join them in a peaceful protest. 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:06.480 They called La mache blanche or White March, symbolizing peace 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:07.800 and innocence. 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.679 The Pies de resistance the White March. Three hundred and 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:15.879 twenty five thousand people, more than three percent of the 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:20.080 population rallied to the call to march on Brussels. Led 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.320 by the parents of Dutru's victims and families of children 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:28.080 still missing, the country is calling for change. Among them 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:31.040 a fourteen year old girl whose rescue from the clutches 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:33.520 of Mark de True and his gang led to their arrest. 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:39.200 Official estimates of protesters were revised upwards after that report. 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.720 It's now thought that up to four hundred thousand people 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:46.040 took part, over three percent of the population at the time, 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:50.359 making it the largest protest in the history of Belgium. 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.840 For comparison, this would be the equivalent of ten million 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:57.280 U S citizens protesting in the streets. It was a 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:01.280 moment of national solidarity across all strand hands of Belgian society. 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:06.040 This is Bruno Denis, a Belgian citizen who shared with 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:07.720 me what it was like to be part of the 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:12.200 Marche blanche or white March. Yeah, it was. 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:13.680 It was a crazy time. 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.199 I mean we it was a shock for all of us. 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:21.280 I mean I had small daughters at that time, myself 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:24.959 pretty much the same age as the as the victim. 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.840 So I was very, very shocked. And every Belgian was 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:33.920 revolted by the police that was so disorganized, and and 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:36.960 the fact that people were not communicating to each other. 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:43.400 We still had two different police departments, Jean Darmerie and 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:47.480 local police, so it was it's it brought to the 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:54.240 surface all the frustration of the population. Now remember when 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.920 I walked into the streets and we did the marchial blanche. 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:04.920 So it was like a huge national gathering where everyone 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:09.639 and all the souls of Belgians, being from Brussels or 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:13.560 being from Wallunia or from Flanders, even though we speak 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:18.080 different languages, were all in that together. You know that 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:22.480 the families of the victims were like typical Belgian families, 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:25.720 like one family was from the Flemish side, the other 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.440 one from the Walloon sides, but pretty much people that 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:36.080 are paying their tax, going every day, working in normal jobs. 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:41.040 And it's also created this sense of gosh, there is 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:44.240 something wrong in this country the way it's organized, Like 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:48.640 there is us as normal people, let's say, and there's 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:53.760 those politicians organizing a system which is failing. And that 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:58.480 created a huge support for those families because I think 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:03.480 everyone was very yeah, we felt like them actually, and 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:10.240 that's why so much people supported them at empathy for them, 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:13.359 and we all went through this this White March and 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:20.560 Marche Blanche. So there's been a very very emotional and 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:26.159 at the same time defining moment for Belgium as a 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:27.040 national state. 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:27.880 I would say. 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:43.880 Nothing would surprise those still morning the dead. They gather 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:46.840 outside mark the Truz shabby wooden house in the village 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:50.680 of Jumae, where the bodies of two teenage girls were unearthed. 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:58.520 We never doubted powerful people were involved, said one man. 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:02.480 This woman a greed. Everyone has their price, she said. 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:06.080 Revulsion at the crimes committed in the houses used by 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:09.840 Marca true has now been compounded by deepening suspicions of 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:14.000 political scandal and cover up. With police officers under arrest 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.760 and the search for bodies continuing. It seems the revelations 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.280 in this horrific case have only just begun. Timu at 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:24.760 News ten at Jumei in southern Belgium. 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:27.960 It's easy to beat up on police investigations with twenty 0:23:28.000 --> 0:23:31.840 twenty hindsight, but what I've learned about this case goes 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:36.959 way beyond armchair criticism of a botched investigation. To understand it, 0:23:37.160 --> 0:23:39.639 we need to rewind back to the summer of nineteen 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:43.840 ninety five, just after the first two victims, Julie and Melissa, 0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:45.000 were kidnapped. 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:49.640 Me vis unvouve. 0:23:50.480 --> 0:23:53.680 This is a message to the kidnappers. We are still 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:57.720 without any news of our girls, Julie and Melissa for 0:23:57.760 --> 0:24:01.360 two weeks now. We've been waiting in inside. We can 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:02.840 no longer take this situation. 0:24:04.000 --> 0:24:07.359 On the seventh of July nineteen ninety five. Just two 0:24:07.400 --> 0:24:11.560 weeks after the abduction, the Gendarmerie of Charlerois, where Mark 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:14.280 d Trux was living at the time, sent a fax 0:24:14.359 --> 0:24:19.040 to their office in Grasselonne, where the girls disappeared. In 0:24:19.080 --> 0:24:21.800 this facts they called attention to Mark da True as 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:25.159 a possible suspect and pointed out as prior record and 0:24:25.200 --> 0:24:29.760 conviction for kidnapping and rape of miners. After a month 0:24:29.760 --> 0:24:33.120 of back and forth within the Gendarmerie, they asked their 0:24:33.200 --> 0:24:36.480 central intelligence arm to build a case against a True, 0:24:36.720 --> 0:24:40.040 and on August ninth, nineteen ninety five, they held an 0:24:40.080 --> 0:24:44.840 internal meeting with other regional offices to discuss it. During 0:24:44.880 --> 0:24:48.920 the same week, they received two separate tips from informants 0:24:49.040 --> 0:24:51.520 claiming that the True might have been involved with the 0:24:51.560 --> 0:24:57.399 disappearance of Julian Melissa. This came on top of previous 0:24:57.400 --> 0:25:01.000 informant statements that d True was building prison cells in 0:25:01.000 --> 0:25:05.240 his basement to hide future kidnapping victims. This was the 0:25:05.320 --> 0:25:09.520 moment it all should have ended. Any investigating judge in 0:25:09.560 --> 0:25:12.919 Belgium would have granted a warrant to search d Tru's 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:17.600 property based on this information. Think about it. De True 0:25:17.640 --> 0:25:21.840 was a known sex offender, previously convicted for kidnapping and 0:25:21.960 --> 0:25:26.360 raping five girls. Since his release in nineteen ninety two, 0:25:26.440 --> 0:25:29.000 he had been arrested for molesting a miner at an 0:25:29.040 --> 0:25:32.520 ice skating rink, and police informants had testified that he 0:25:32.600 --> 0:25:35.840 was building prison cells in his basements to hide away 0:25:35.960 --> 0:25:40.480 kidnapped girls. In August of nineteen ninety five, roughly a 0:25:40.560 --> 0:25:44.919 month after the disappearance of Julian Melissa, two separate informants 0:25:45.000 --> 0:25:47.800 came forward with suspicions that De True might have been 0:25:47.800 --> 0:25:51.480 involved with a disappearance. One of them stated that de 0:25:51.520 --> 0:25:53.760 True told him in June that he had a big 0:25:53.800 --> 0:25:57.200 opportunity in the pipeline, and the other said that de 0:25:57.320 --> 0:26:01.159 True recently tried to convince him to help him kidnap children. 0:26:02.000 --> 0:26:05.359 The True was clearly the gendarmeries number one suspect at 0:26:05.359 --> 0:26:10.320 this point, So why didn't they ask for a warrant immediately? Well, 0:26:10.520 --> 0:26:12.840 to do that, they'd have to request a warrant from 0:26:12.840 --> 0:26:15.760 the judge and inform the regular police force in liege 0:26:15.760 --> 0:26:19.080 who had jurisdiction. So is this a case of one 0:26:19.160 --> 0:26:22.480 jurisdiction not sharing information and trying to outdo the other. 0:26:24.000 --> 0:26:25.879 It wouldn't be the first time we've seen this in 0:26:25.920 --> 0:26:30.000 Belgium or many other countries for that matter. But we're 0:26:30.000 --> 0:26:34.000 talking about two eight year old girls. Surely you drop 0:26:34.119 --> 0:26:37.199 everything and stop the bickering when young, innocent lives are 0:26:37.200 --> 0:26:42.000 at stake, But they didn't do that. Instead, they held 0:26:42.000 --> 0:26:45.119 their internal meeting on August ninth to create a plan 0:26:45.359 --> 0:26:49.760 to undermine the investigating judge and police in Liege. Any 0:26:49.760 --> 0:26:53.080 such meeting required official notes to be taken for the record, 0:26:53.400 --> 0:26:55.879 but the minutes of this meeting were either not recorded 0:26:56.200 --> 0:27:01.320 or were destroyed afterwards. Meanwhile, Julian and Melissa were alive 0:27:01.480 --> 0:27:05.919 and languishing in d True's sordid dungeon. Their parents were 0:27:05.960 --> 0:27:09.120 talking to the gendarmes every day and even chasing futile 0:27:09.200 --> 0:27:13.000 leads themselves. This is the point that you'd expect the 0:27:13.040 --> 0:27:16.359 gendarmes to roll in like knights in shining armor to 0:27:16.480 --> 0:27:20.800 vanquish evil and save the girls. A perfect opportunity to 0:27:20.840 --> 0:27:23.879 show up their rivals in the judicial police, but that 0:27:24.040 --> 0:27:28.000 didn't happen. It was written in the sky that Dtru's 0:27:28.040 --> 0:27:30.560 property should have been searched right then and there in 0:27:30.600 --> 0:27:35.520 the beginning of August. What happened next was astounding. They 0:27:35.560 --> 0:27:41.840