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Missing Belgian schoolgirls found murdered

An intense three-week search for two missing Belgian schoolgirls came to a wretched end on Wednesday when their bodies were found hidden in a storm drain at the side of a railway track about 1km from the bar where they disappeared in Liege.

The city's chief prosecutor announced that Stacy Lemmens, seven, and Nathalie Mahy, 10, whose bodies were badly decomposed, had been murdered.

"Everything was done to find them alive," declared Cedric Visart de Bocarme. "Unfortunately these hopes were dashed by the discovery of these children deceased, or do I need to say it, murdered."

The girls, whose bodies were found near each other, amid dense undergrowth in a storm drain next to one of the main railway lines into Liege, were dressed in the same clothes they were wearing on the night they disappeared. Stacy was wearing a white T-shirt and pink sports shoes, while Nathalie was wearing a pink T-shirt with sparkling silver decorations.

Recent memories

Police believe that the state of the bodies indicates that the stepsisters were murdered soon after their disappearance at around 1.30am on June 10 from the nearby Armuriers bar during a street festival.

Their disappearance shook Belgium and revived memories of the grim deeds of Marc Dutroux who committed his most notorious crime 10 years ago in Liege when he kidnapped Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo.

The eight-year-old girls starved to death after suffering months of torture and sexual abuse.

As the Belgian prime minister addressed the nation, the authorities made clear that the murder inquiry would focus on a convicted child rapist who has been in police custody for two weeks.

Abdallah Ait-Oud, who was seen at the Armuriers bar shortly before the girls vanished, turned himself in four days after their disappearance when his picture was flashed on television.

"For the moment there are no other suspects," Visart de Bocarme said as he responded to questions about the chief suspect, who was a regular at the bar and was the boyfriend of one of the waitresses.

The authorities made clear that Ait-Oud, 38, who denies any involvement, played no part in Wednesday's discovery. Police had searched the area next to the railway line on June 16 as they worked their way through a list of sites, which included dredging cars from the nearby Meuse river. This was called off while police awaited special cutting equipment to clear thick vegetation, which only arrived on Tuesday afternoon.

Police found the body of Stacy, at around 11am on Wednesday. This was followed a few hours later by the discovery of Nathalie's body nearby.

Family in shock

The discovery of the bodies devastated the girls' parents. Christiane Granziero, Stacy's mother, collapsed and had to be taken to hospital.

Catherine Dizier, Nathalie's mother who had been drinking in the bar with Stacy's father, Thierry Lemmens, when the girls went missing, was being cared for by social workers. Dizier and Lemmens, who used to be partners, told reporters last week that they would never give up searching.

Lemmens said: "I've told all the children in the family that we will bring back Stacy and Nathalie. And I never lie."

Crown Prince Philippe, the heir to the Belgian throne, underlined the nation's shock when he announced that he would scale back a trade visit to Moscow as a sign of respect for the girls' families.

"As parents ourselves we want to express our feelings with the parents," he said in Moscow.

Locals in the Armuriers bar in Liege also fell silent as the 18-day agonizing wait came to an end. Heads were bowed as Nathalie's remains were driven away from the railway line half a mile away in a blacked out van. Autopsies on the bodies were due to be performed yesterday.

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