The Antwerp police made the discovery last week on the Amerikalei, in the shadow of the Butterfly Palace. The local police officer knocked on the door of the stately terraced house of Markus V., a former interior designer who, among other things, helped redesign the interior of the Church of Our Lady of Leliëndaal in Mechelen in the early 1990s.
The local police officer was accompanied by a bailiff last Wednesday to seize the man’s belongings. Markus V. had several outstanding accounts in recent months. A locksmith was ordered to open the door, but once inside the party noticed that the mailbox was overflowing with unopened mail.
Health issues
The newspaper from April 2, 2023 was on a table in the living room. The police searched the house and found the man’s lifeless body in one of the rooms on the first floor. It soon became clear that V. had died some time ago.
“An autopsy confirmed that there was no suspicious death and that the victim, a 60-year-old man, died of natural causes,” confirmed spokesperson Willem Migom of the Antwerp police. The man had apparently been suffering from serious health problems for some time.
The neighbors had not seen Markus for months, but in all that time no one in the area raised the alarm. Even though his parked car near the Butterfly Palace had been collecting dirt in the same spot for several months and his regular pharmacist had not visited him for a long time – despite his poor health.
Ashram
“Markus had little contact with the neighbors. I must have been one of the only ones who occasionally encountered him on the street,” says lawyer Dirk Dielen, who has an office next door. “Markus was an amiable, friendly man who lived a frugal and lonely life.”
According to him, it was also rather exceptional that the man was in Antwerp. “Markus often made long journeys. He went to India several times, where he stayed for a long time in an ashram (a religious community, ed.).”
The body has now been released. Markus V. no longer had any close family, but a distant cousin was informed of his death through a mutual friend. Since he came from Lint, where his parents also lived for many years, V. will be buried there this Friday at 11.30 am in the parish church of Our Lady of the Nativity.
