murder case
A 78-year-old man, the partner of Annie De Poortere when he disappeared thirty years ago in Sint-Martens-Latem, has been arrested by the investigating judge in Ghent. He has been placed under electronic surveillance for acts that are provisionally qualified as murder, the East Flanders public prosecutor’s office says.
Annie De Poortere disappeared without a trace from her house along Kerkstraat in Sint-Martens-Latem on November 12, 1994. Last Saturday, the remains of a woman were found in the house next to De Poortere’s. The two houses share a garden with two garages. “Based on several strong indications,” the public prosecutor’s office assumes that the remains belong to the disappeared woman.
After the discovery of the body, an investigating judge was ordered to investigate the circumstances of the death. “This investigation has now led to the arrest of a 78-year-old man, the then partner of the victim,” the public prosecutor’s office said.
Annie Depoortere’s husband was the last to see her. “It must have been around 2 p.m.,” he said in 1999 in the investigation program Oproep 2020. The man told how he then went shopping and then left for a football match. “When I got home it was dark. She was gone. Some clothes that had been on the couch were gone,” it said at the time. According to the public prosecutor’s office, “further investigation will now have to reveal what his actual role was in the death of the victim.”
The man will have to appear before the council chamber within five days, which will decide on his further arrest.
