September 6, 2022 • 28 mins
Letters from Sabine Dardenne provide a horrific account of her captivity. With 6 girls still missing, the prosecutor and police track down leads pointing to a main suspect, Marc Dutroux. He and his accomplices are detained and interrogated. The world is about to discover the horrors of Marc Dutroux.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast,
and do not represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, or
their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter which may
not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
It had been three days since Sabine d'arden had been
ripped off of her bike and transported in a dirty
van to a run down house and then chained to
a bed by her neck. The first few days of
captivity were a blur. Her kidnapper explained that he worked
for a dangerous man who wanted to take revenge on
(00:44):
Sabine's father, who was a police officer. He said his
boss wanted to kill her to get back at her father,
but that he was going to disobey this boss in
order to save her life, but that they needed to
hide her away. On the day, he led her downstairs
to her new home. It was a basement cellar hidden
(01:05):
behind a trap door. It was seven feet long and
three feet wide, with a ceiling of only about five
feet in height. There was no natural light, and it
was damp and cold. Sabine was in a very dark place.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
A psychopath is somebody who understands emotions.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
And I told them it is a very exceptional that
somebody abducts two children at the same time.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Would have been the yell of it in nineteen six,
but my god, it was just a beginning.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
I think Belgium was a paralyzed for perverts in those days.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Welcome to la monstre. I'm your host, Matt Graves. On
June twenty fourth, nineteen ninety five, two young girls went
missing in the province of Liege and Belgium. Two months later,
two more young girls went missing in the province of
West Flanders on the Belgian coast. In May of the
(02:30):
following year, Sabine Darden was abducted in Tournee, and then
in August Letitia de Les went missing from Bertrich. We
know a lot about Sabine's experiences based on letters and
a journal found where she was held. Her kidnapper encouraged
her to write letters to her parents, which he promised
to get to them. Sadly, it was just a ploy
(02:53):
to get her to believe that he was protecting her
from an imaginary, big bad boss and to better understand
to manipulate her The innocence of Sabine's letters is heartbreaking.
They were openly published years later, so I decided to
share parts of them in this episode. Here is an
excerpt of one of these letters, read by a young
(03:15):
girl the same age as Sabine at the time. Recording
this take was upsetting in and of itself. The youth
and innocence of a twelve year old is something to
be cherished and nurtured. It's crushing to imagine Sabine writing
these letters in the hope of reaching out to those
she loved. Just hearing a recording of her words as difficult.
(03:37):
Listener discretion is advised. Parts of them have been shortened
and adjusted. In translation from French.
Speaker 6 (03:44):
Dear Mommy, Daddy, Nanny, Sophie, Sebastian, Sam, Tiffi and all
the rest of the family. I asked the man who's
keeping me if I could write you again, because Mommy's
birthday is approaching. In Sophie Sam's too, I'm so so
sad I can't wish you a happy birthday and give
you a big kiss and maybe even offer you a present. Unfortunately,
(04:08):
that's not possible, and if I came home, we'd all
be killed. And I don't want that. I'd rather write
you from here instead of being at home dead. The
man who's keeping me told me his friend gave mommy
my last letter, and after reading it, you said, I
should be sure to watch myself well and learn to
like what the man does to me, and to be
(04:30):
nice to him, because if he gets angry with me,
he could give me to the bad man, who would
hurt me and kill me. By the way, did you
eat the radishes? If you want to replant them? There
is some seed left in the docker's shoe box in
my room. The food I get here is disgusting. There's
never any sauce or seasoning. Almost all the food he
(04:53):
gives me is expired, he says. The expiry date on
the label is the cell date. Everything I get is
the generic brand. But Hey drinks real coke and eats
real nutella. If he has to leave or has visitors,
I have to stay locked in the basement, sometimes for
several days without any meals. When he left for five days,
(05:16):
he gave me some expired chocolate from nineteen ninety three.
It tasted old, but I ate it anyways. Hope you're
thinking of me. I miss you and adore you all
very much.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
The letters from Sabine are long and detailed. I left
out the parts about the repeated assaults she experienced at
the hands of this monster. In early August, he locked
her into the basement and said he'd be back soon
with a new friend for her. On August tenth, nineteen
(05:51):
ninety six, after several days with solitude in the dark
and damp dungeon, he opened the trap door and told
Sabine her new friend was there. He led her to
the same upstairs room where she'd been placed after being abducted. There,
to Sabine's horror, was another girl in a drug induced haze,
(06:14):
chained to the bed. It was her new future cellmate,
Letitia Dalaise. You'll remember from the last episode that a
sixth girl, Leticia d Lais, went missing on August eighth,
nineteen ninety six, from the village of Bertrie in the
south of Belgium. The King's Prosecutor Michel Bourlat, along with
(06:38):
investigating Judge Conrad, and police, were furiously working on tracking
down a lead that uncovered from interviews. In Bertrie, two
separate witnesses reported seeing a suspicious looking van near where
Letitia was last seen, and by chance one of the
witnesses was able to recall the van well, even remembering
the first three letters of the license plate. He thought
(07:01):
the van was a Renault traffique and a license plate
began with fr R. They quickly ran a search of
all Renault vehicles in Belgium with a license plate starting
with f r R, and the query gave them seventy
seven hits. Only one of these seventy seven Renault vehicles
was a traffique model. It was registered to a man
(07:23):
from the town of Charlewais named Mark de True. During
my interview with the former King's prosecutor, Michel Boulet, he
talked me through how it went down from there.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Monsieur the agent van Rillard ran a search in his
computer and several names come back, one of which was
a certain to True. I asked, who's this guy? He
was someone very interesting and had been under surveillance for
a year then by the Gendarmerie of Challerroois, and we
(08:03):
set up a meeting that evening with the first Sergeant
Michaud and two officers from challah Wah who were going
to bring more information about the suspect and their surveillance operation.
At eight pm, I was there and the three officers
from shallow Wah arrived with a relatively large case file,
(08:25):
and mister Michaud tells us that they have a lot
of suspicions about Du True, who'd already been sentenced to
thirteen years of prison for abduction, rape and sequestration of miners,
got out of prison two years ago and had apparently
solicited people to help him abduct young girls and imprison
them in hiding places he was building at his home.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
Shit we.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
I said, that's great. What's he doing in Bertree where
a young girl just disappeared? An operation was set in
motion right away at nine pm. The investigating judge set
it up with a gendarmerie. It's after nine pm and
we can execute a warrant without obvious offense at night.
(09:12):
There's no obvious offense at this point. There are clues
that it could be true, but there is no obvious offense.
We can't make an arrest just based on suspicion between
sunset and sunrise, but there's nothing preventing us from surveilling him.
At three am, all of the addresses of Du Tru
are under surveillanced.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
True owned several rundown properties which he'd managed to accumulate
over time. Judicial authorities and police moved as quickly as
they could. When they found the name Mark de True
and checked his records, they knew he was a strong suspect.
The Gendarmerie of Charlewas had a huge file on to
True and it was obvious that he could be a perpetrator.
(09:55):
His file included other possible accomplices, including his wife Miche Martin,
and friends Michel Lelievre and a french Man named Bernard Weinstein.
Michel Martin was de Tru's wife or second wife, i
should say. In my interview with the King's prosecutor, he
refers to her as Martin. Michel Lo Lievre was a
(10:17):
friend of Dtruz, or more like a lackey who was
strung out on drugs and did odd jobs for the True.
In the interview, he's referred to as Li Lievre. Bernard
Weinstein was another friend of Dtruz, or more like an
associate who worked with him on various criminal enterprises. Weinstein
was a hardened criminal from France with a very long
rap sheet. It was now three am on August thirteenth,
(10:41):
nineteen ninety six, four days after Letitia had gone missing. Julie, Melissa, Anne,
Effia and Sabine were all still missing as well. Police
had all of Dtru's properties under surveillance, but they couldn't
move in for arrest until after sunrise because of an
arcane Belgian law proclies luting warrants to be served at night.
(11:03):
During surveillance, they believe that Marked True as well as
two of his possible accomplices were all together at a
property registered to his wife, Michelle Martin, in the town
of Sarce Labuisier. As the sun rose, they applied for
a warrant to search the property.
Speaker 7 (11:21):
I'm a modernie.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
At one point we got information from sar Labuisier that
d True, Martin, and the Lievre were all three there
at the residence of Martin, I think with a famous
Renault traffic that was the object of multiple consistent witness testimony. You,
Judge Conrad, said, Okay, let's go exercise the warrants, make
the arrests and bring them in.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Police rushed into the residence in Sarce Labuisier on August
thirteenth and arrested the three suspects. The True was thirty
nine years old with thick, dark hair and a mustache.
He kept us cool and submitted to the arrest. Martin
de True's wife was thirty six. Underneath her long blonde banks,
her eyes looked vacant and wary, and Lolievre to Truz
(12:06):
Lackey was twenty five years old with greasy hair, and
he looked strung out on drugs. As police brought them
into the local station for interrogation, other officers searched the
van in residence. They'd heard rumors from an informant that
the True had tried to hire others to help him
build hidden chambers in his home, but the police's search
(12:27):
turned up nothing, and without more concrete evidence of a crime,
police could only hold them for twenty four hours, so
time was of the essence. At the station, one police
team was interrogating to True while another was interviewing his
Lackey Lolievre, but the wife, Martin, was just sitting there
and no one was interrogating her, and Boulet grew frustrated.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
The police team, with Inspector de Moulain, took Mark d
True in for interrogation. Lollievre was interrogated by another team
from enough Chateau, and Martin was held in waiting until
one of those teams would be free to interrogate her.
I told Captain Deneux, who was in charge of this
operation in Charlerois, that there was another team of judicial
(13:16):
police there, so let's use them to interrogate Martin. I
only had twenty four hours to hold these people, and
they moaned about the judicial police always arriving at the
eleventh hour, and I said, listen, as the King's prosecutor,
I'm the one who decides here, okay. I told them
they had to give Martin to another officer who was available,
(13:37):
and the gendarmes started complaining, et cetera, et cetera. Moreover,
just after having this altercation with an officer of the Gendarmerie,
I walked up to the window and see a guy
leaving the station and I said, who's that and someone
said it was the Lievre and I asked, is he leaving?
Speaker 6 (13:54):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (13:54):
They said the enough shot to investigators didn't think he'd
done anything wrong. And then Commander Law arrived, who had
been questioning neighbors at detru'z house in Marceinelle and Detruz
neighbors had said that they saw the True arrive home
in the van on Friday night together with Michelle the
olive skinned guy, and I said, who's Michelle the olive
(14:15):
skinned guy, and they said, oh, that's Michelle Lilievre, and
I said, well, he just fucked off out the door.
At that point all of the police again started looking
for Lollievre, who was now walking around freely in Charlewaugh.
We found him an hour later at the train station,
trying to flee to Slovakia.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Needless to say, it was a bumpy start to the arrest,
with different police forces interviewing suspects in the same case
and making uncoordinated decisions, but fortunately Prosecutor Boulat was there
to knock their heads together. After recapturing lo Lievre, the True,
his wife, Martin, and Lilliere were all being questioned separately
by interrogation teams. All of them denied any involvement right
(14:59):
from the beginning. De True was questioned for five hours
and admitted nothing. They left him alone in the interrogation
room for a few hours and then came back and
continued questioning him for another three hours until three am,
but he stuck to his story. The next morning, Judge
Conrad indicted to True for the disappearance of Letitia. Nonetheless,
(15:21):
meanwhilel Lievre was still being questioned and was suffering from
heroin withdrawal. One can't help but think that the police
used this to their advantage to get Li Lievre to talk.
In any case, he finally cracked and admitted that he
and a True had abducted Letitian bare Tree. This gave
police what they needed to continue holding and interrogating the
(15:43):
three suspects beyond twenty four hours, but the clock was
still ticking because Letitia was still unaccounted for. Lalievre vehemently
insisted that he didn't know what happened to Letitia and
that he just dropped her off with the True at
his house in Charlewaugh. As soon as that's the team
responsible for interrogating the True learned ofl Lievre's confession. Sergeant
(16:04):
Michelle du Moulain and his partner Jean Laboule, took another
crack at the True. After a long search, I was
able to track down Michelle du Moulain, and he agreed
to discuss the case. The recording is poor, so it
will fade out and you'll hear a translation.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
I was the most experienced investigator in the team, so
they asked me to take the lead on interrogating to True.
I proceeded like I usually do with suspects. I asked
him a lot of questions in order to get to
know him about his life, who did he live with,
what was his house like, and so on, to get
an idea about his personality. And I realized at one
(16:42):
point that he was a vain person and he needed
to be recognized in to be respected for what he was,
so I worked with that as well. The first time,
I questioned him from three point fifteen until around eight
thirty pm, and then took a break for about two hours,
and then I questioned him again from around eleven one
pm to four o'clock in the morning, and then he
(17:03):
said he had indeed heard about Letitia's disappearance, but he
had nothing to do with it. He'd seen her and
she'd actually gotten into his van at one point, but
that he let her go.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
With multiple witnesses having identified his van, the True must
have felt he had to admit something in order to
remain credible. By the end of a second interview, it
was four am and de Moulain was breathing down to
Truth's neck, so he decided to share some crumbs. Hear
the Truth's actual words from transcripts of this interview read
by an interpreter.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
I saw a cute girl. She was wearing a skimpy
summer outfit, and when she passed by, I said hello.
She was interested in my van and I told her
to jump in, and she sat down next to me.
We jetted a bait and I asked her ah, and
she said she was fifteen.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Years old or something like that.
Speaker 7 (17:58):
She said she was sped up and had family problems.
I could see she was open and easy. She wasn't afraid.
When I found out her age, I was disappointed and
decided I didn't want to have any troubles.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
And then she left.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
And the next day, on the fifteenth of August, I
was waiting for him with all of the elements, and
I interrogated him. Actually it wasn't even an interrogation. I
demonstrated to him that he was the author of the kidnapping,
and I squeezed him squeezed him, squeezed him, and to
avoid making him loose face in front of me, I
brought him along so he could admit it and to
(18:39):
take control. He said quote, it's not one girl I'm
going to give you, but two girls. And with that
in his mind, he became superior to me because he
was giving me more than what I was asking for.
It was a game for him, and he didn't want
(19:01):
to tell me where they were. He wanted to hold
me in suspense and take me to where he had
the girls. He said he wouldn't admit anything then, but
that he would go to Marcinelle with me.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
To get a deeper understanding of the True's character, I
was able to interview a man who spent a lot
of time with him, his lawyer, Ronnie Bodwain, My co
producer Thomas, and I met with him in his offices
in Brussels. After introductions and some chit chat, I asked
him about when the True became his client.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
From two thousand and three until fourteen, I was his lawyer,
which means that I have done the preparation of his
court case, the whole court case, and even years after that,
I have been in contact with.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Him, okay, and so you were in the thick of
it and spend I guess countless hours with your client.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Yes, Ronnie is a sprightly man, full of the energetic
confidence he'd want to have in your corner when facing
an uphill battle. I asked him to give his opinion
on a mental state of Mark the True.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
If you read the report of doctor Denas. He said,
I've done in my career. He was already at the
end of his career at the time that he was
coming to testify in court about the report that he
made on Mark the True, And I said, I've done
about four thousands of these expertises, you know, in investigations
towards the personality of somebody else, that I never met
(20:33):
anybody so close to one hundred percent psychopath. He says,
if I have to put something on that, I think
he must be about ninety seven or something, right. But
the strange thing is that it is exactly the one
thing of feelings that he had left that became his downfall,
and that is that pride, right, because there at a
certain moment the police commissioner Monsieur de Mulain, who did
(20:56):
the investigation, he also got to know through the investigation
how Mark the Trux was and you know, it's very silly,
but in fact he challenged him. He said, oh, but
you don't know anything about those girls that were abducted.
It inverse the rules, and he said, you're trying to
make me believe that you know something about them, and
(21:17):
Mark the true this pride, you know, overwhelming. He said,
oh no, I'm not going to give you one. I'm
going to give you another one. And he showed one
of the girls what that was on the billboard in
the police station. And suddenly, because they didn't even ask
anything to him about the second girl, they didn't even
realize that he was involved, Suddenly they had two girls.
(21:40):
And that is just by pushing on the one button
left where there is some feeling, and that.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Is this pride right.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
And I've used the same technique to let him do
things that I wanted him to do, because after a while,
you learn you know how people are acting. And I
had to spend many hours with him, so after while,
I was able to find out exactly what this Durmula
had found out as well on the personality.
Speaker 7 (22:05):
Of my client.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
When Da True finally cracked. He agreed to take police
where Sabine and Letitia were hidden, but he wouldn't just
give them the address. He wanted to stay in control
and watch it all happen. Little time was wasted before
De True was secreted away from the station to lead
a group of gendarmes to his house in Charlewis. He
(22:30):
led them down to a basement and walked over to
an unassuming shelf along the wall. He revealed that behind
it was a trap door that opened up into a
pitch black chamber beneath his house. Police shined their flashlights
into the darkness, and what they saw shocked them to
(22:52):
their core. Crouched into the corner of a dark and
damp dungeon were two naked girls, visibly scared to death
of whoever was coming for them. They were so afraid
that they refused to move until De True told him
it was okay. Remember from Sabine's letter that de True
(23:16):
had told her that he was hiding her from a
bad man who wanted to kill her.
Speaker 6 (23:20):
Give me to the bad man who would hurt me
and kill me.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
He had told the same story to Letitia, so both
girls were frightened to death. When they first saw the police.
At approximately six thirty pm on August fifteenth, nineteen ninety six,
all of Belgium in the world for that matter, witnessed
the surreal scene of Leticia de Les and Sabine Darden
(23:45):
emerging into the light after being rescued from De True's
House of Horrors in Charlewaugh. It was filmed live by
the Belgian TV channel VTM and the footage is both
harrowing and relieving. It wasn't long before or international media
picked up the story for the whole world to see.
Speaker 8 (24:04):
Twelve year old Sabine dar Den disappeared in May. Letitia
Dalais had been missing for only six days. Both were
imprisoned into truth makeshift dungeon. Patricia Kelly CNN Brussels.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Letitia emerged first, looking confused and disheveled, followed by a
pale and emaciated Sabine, who had spent eighty days in captivity,
most of them in the macabre dungeon. The King's prosecutor
addressed the nation in a press briefing shortly after the
discovery of the girls. A younger version of the man
I interviewed Michel Bourlet appeared in a crowded room full
(24:41):
of journalists, sitting next to the investigating judge, Jean Marc Conrad.
He was visibly tired with bloodshot eyes, but he also
exuded an overwhelming sense of relief.
Speaker 7 (24:53):
Gillie Mouspresi the USA Nose.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Later that evening, there were scenes of jubilation and euphoria
a Sabine and Letitia were reunited with their families on
live television. Most of the country breathed a sigh of relief,
(25:19):
and residents in Bertrie spontaneously assembled a bonfire to burn
the thousands of missing persons posters of the girls that
had been prepared for distribution. But the parents of the
other missing girls, like eight year olds Julie LeJean and
Melissa Russo and high schoolers Anne Martial and Effie Alambrics,
(25:39):
waited on pens and needles, wondering if their disappearances were
also connected to the true news of the sordid dungeon,
and testimonies of Sabine and Letitia slowly started to trickle out.
Speaker 9 (25:53):
This basement and the crimes committed here have made this
house notorious. Every Belgium knows about mark chamber of horrors
that they must come here and see for themselves just
how desperate and sordid conditions were for the girls held
prisoner here. Julia Bremner ITV News Charlois.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
The world was about to learn the extent of the
horrors of the true and its accomplices. Sabine and letitious
rescue was only the beginning of a story that would
shark the world and rattle the foundations of Belgium next
(26:35):
time on La Montre.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
I know I've studied the file, and I've studied, amongst
other things, I've studied the relationship between them both, and
I'm sure that at that time it was possible for
him to do that because he had found literally but
also in a figure of speech, a partner in crime.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Should have been Jano beating nineteen eighty six. My gods,
it was just a beginning. What happens after he got
out of prison is just beyond believing.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Lo Monstra is a production of Tenderfoot TV and iHeart Radio,
hosted and executive produced by me Matt Graves, produced by
Thomas Resimont of Bubble Sound. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay
are executive producers. On the behalf of Tenderfoot TV with
producer Makeup and Vanity Set. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams
are executive producers on the behalf of iHeartRadio with producer
(27:43):
Trevor Young. Original music by Jay Ragsdale, Sound design by
Cooper Skinner and Thomas Resimont, mixed and mastered by Cooper Skinner.
Cover design by Trevor eilerl Monstra includes archival audio from SONYMA,
RTBF Archive and CNN Archives. Special thanks to Backmedia and
(28:04):
Marketing Station sixteen, Jean Savigna, and the teams at iHeartRadio
and Tenderfoot TV. Find us on social media at Monster
Underscore pod. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio or Tenderfoot TV,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast,
and do not represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, or
their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter which may
not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
It had been three days since Sabine d'arden had been
ripped off of her bike and transported in a dirty
van to a run down house and then chained to
a bed by her neck. The first few days of
captivity were a blur. Her kidnapper explained that he worked
for a dangerous man who wanted to take revenge on
(00:44):
Sabine's father, who was a police officer. He said his
boss wanted to kill her to get back at her father,
but that he was going to disobey this boss in
order to save her life, but that they needed to
hide her away. On the day, he led her downstairs
to her new home. It was a basement cellar hidden
(01:05):
behind a trap door. It was seven feet long and
three feet wide, with a ceiling of only about five
feet in height. There was no natural light, and it
was damp and cold. Sabine was in a very dark place.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
A psychopath is somebody who understands emotions.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
And I told them it is a very exceptional that
somebody abducts two children at the same time.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Would have been the yell of it in nineteen six,
but my god, it was just a beginning.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
I think Belgium was a paralyzed for perverts in those days.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Welcome to la monstre. I'm your host, Matt Graves. On
June twenty fourth, nineteen ninety five, two young girls went
missing in the province of Liege and Belgium. Two months later,
two more young girls went missing in the province of
West Flanders on the Belgian coast. In May of the
(02:30):
following year, Sabine Darden was abducted in Tournee, and then
in August Letitia de Les went missing from Bertrich. We
know a lot about Sabine's experiences based on letters and
a journal found where she was held. Her kidnapper encouraged
her to write letters to her parents, which he promised
to get to them. Sadly, it was just a ploy
(02:53):
to get her to believe that he was protecting her
from an imaginary, big bad boss and to better understand
to manipulate her The innocence of Sabine's letters is heartbreaking.
They were openly published years later, so I decided to
share parts of them in this episode. Here is an
excerpt of one of these letters, read by a young
(03:15):
girl the same age as Sabine at the time. Recording
this take was upsetting in and of itself. The youth
and innocence of a twelve year old is something to
be cherished and nurtured. It's crushing to imagine Sabine writing
these letters in the hope of reaching out to those
she loved. Just hearing a recording of her words as difficult.
(03:37):
Listener discretion is advised. Parts of them have been shortened
and adjusted. In translation from French.
Speaker 6 (03:44):
Dear Mommy, Daddy, Nanny, Sophie, Sebastian, Sam, Tiffi and all
the rest of the family. I asked the man who's
keeping me if I could write you again, because Mommy's
birthday is approaching. In Sophie Sam's too, I'm so so
sad I can't wish you a happy birthday and give
you a big kiss and maybe even offer you a present. Unfortunately,
(04:08):
that's not possible, and if I came home, we'd all
be killed. And I don't want that. I'd rather write
you from here instead of being at home dead. The
man who's keeping me told me his friend gave mommy
my last letter, and after reading it, you said, I
should be sure to watch myself well and learn to
like what the man does to me, and to be
(04:30):
nice to him, because if he gets angry with me,
he could give me to the bad man, who would
hurt me and kill me. By the way, did you
eat the radishes? If you want to replant them? There
is some seed left in the docker's shoe box in
my room. The food I get here is disgusting. There's
never any sauce or seasoning. Almost all the food he
(04:53):
gives me is expired, he says. The expiry date on
the label is the cell date. Everything I get is
the generic brand. But Hey drinks real coke and eats
real nutella. If he has to leave or has visitors,
I have to stay locked in the basement, sometimes for
several days without any meals. When he left for five days,
(05:16):
he gave me some expired chocolate from nineteen ninety three.
It tasted old, but I ate it anyways. Hope you're
thinking of me. I miss you and adore you all
very much.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
The letters from Sabine are long and detailed. I left
out the parts about the repeated assaults she experienced at
the hands of this monster. In early August, he locked
her into the basement and said he'd be back soon
with a new friend for her. On August tenth, nineteen
(05:51):
ninety six, after several days with solitude in the dark
and damp dungeon, he opened the trap door and told
Sabine her new friend was there. He led her to
the same upstairs room where she'd been placed after being abducted. There,
to Sabine's horror, was another girl in a drug induced haze,
(06:14):
chained to the bed. It was her new future cellmate,
Letitia Dalaise. You'll remember from the last episode that a
sixth girl, Leticia d Lais, went missing on August eighth,
nineteen ninety six, from the village of Bertrie in the
south of Belgium. The King's Prosecutor Michel Bourlat, along with
(06:38):
investigating Judge Conrad, and police, were furiously working on tracking
down a lead that uncovered from interviews. In Bertrie, two
separate witnesses reported seeing a suspicious looking van near where
Letitia was last seen, and by chance one of the
witnesses was able to recall the van well, even remembering
the first three letters of the license plate. He thought
(07:01):
the van was a Renault traffique and a license plate
began with fr R. They quickly ran a search of
all Renault vehicles in Belgium with a license plate starting
with f r R, and the query gave them seventy
seven hits. Only one of these seventy seven Renault vehicles
was a traffique model. It was registered to a man
(07:23):
from the town of Charlewais named Mark de True. During
my interview with the former King's prosecutor, Michel Boulet, he
talked me through how it went down from there.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Monsieur the agent van Rillard ran a search in his
computer and several names come back, one of which was
a certain to True. I asked, who's this guy? He
was someone very interesting and had been under surveillance for
a year then by the Gendarmerie of Challerroois, and we
(08:03):
set up a meeting that evening with the first Sergeant
Michaud and two officers from challah Wah who were going
to bring more information about the suspect and their surveillance operation.
At eight pm, I was there and the three officers
from shallow Wah arrived with a relatively large case file,
(08:25):
and mister Michaud tells us that they have a lot
of suspicions about Du True, who'd already been sentenced to
thirteen years of prison for abduction, rape and sequestration of miners,
got out of prison two years ago and had apparently
solicited people to help him abduct young girls and imprison
them in hiding places he was building at his home.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
Shit we.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
I said, that's great. What's he doing in Bertree where
a young girl just disappeared? An operation was set in
motion right away at nine pm. The investigating judge set
it up with a gendarmerie. It's after nine pm and
we can execute a warrant without obvious offense at night.
(09:12):
There's no obvious offense at this point. There are clues
that it could be true, but there is no obvious offense.
We can't make an arrest just based on suspicion between
sunset and sunrise, but there's nothing preventing us from surveilling him.
At three am, all of the addresses of Du Tru
are under surveillanced.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
True owned several rundown properties which he'd managed to accumulate
over time. Judicial authorities and police moved as quickly as
they could. When they found the name Mark de True
and checked his records, they knew he was a strong suspect.
The Gendarmerie of Charlewas had a huge file on to
True and it was obvious that he could be a perpetrator.
(09:55):
His file included other possible accomplices, including his wife Miche Martin,
and friends Michel Lelievre and a french Man named Bernard Weinstein.
Michel Martin was de Tru's wife or second wife, i
should say. In my interview with the King's prosecutor, he
refers to her as Martin. Michel Lo Lievre was a
(10:17):
friend of Dtruz, or more like a lackey who was
strung out on drugs and did odd jobs for the True.
In the interview, he's referred to as Li Lievre. Bernard
Weinstein was another friend of Dtruz, or more like an
associate who worked with him on various criminal enterprises. Weinstein
was a hardened criminal from France with a very long
rap sheet. It was now three am on August thirteenth,
(10:41):
nineteen ninety six, four days after Letitia had gone missing. Julie, Melissa, Anne,
Effia and Sabine were all still missing as well. Police
had all of Dtru's properties under surveillance, but they couldn't
move in for arrest until after sunrise because of an
arcane Belgian law proclies luting warrants to be served at night.
(11:03):
During surveillance, they believe that Marked True as well as
two of his possible accomplices were all together at a
property registered to his wife, Michelle Martin, in the town
of Sarce Labuisier. As the sun rose, they applied for
a warrant to search the property.
Speaker 7 (11:21):
I'm a modernie.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
At one point we got information from sar Labuisier that
d True, Martin, and the Lievre were all three there
at the residence of Martin, I think with a famous
Renault traffic that was the object of multiple consistent witness testimony. You,
Judge Conrad, said, Okay, let's go exercise the warrants, make
the arrests and bring them in.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Police rushed into the residence in Sarce Labuisier on August
thirteenth and arrested the three suspects. The True was thirty
nine years old with thick, dark hair and a mustache.
He kept us cool and submitted to the arrest. Martin
de True's wife was thirty six. Underneath her long blonde banks,
her eyes looked vacant and wary, and Lolievre to Truz
(12:06):
Lackey was twenty five years old with greasy hair, and
he looked strung out on drugs. As police brought them
into the local station for interrogation, other officers searched the
van in residence. They'd heard rumors from an informant that
the True had tried to hire others to help him
build hidden chambers in his home, but the police's search
(12:27):
turned up nothing, and without more concrete evidence of a crime,
police could only hold them for twenty four hours, so
time was of the essence. At the station, one police
team was interrogating to True while another was interviewing his
Lackey Lolievre, but the wife, Martin, was just sitting there
and no one was interrogating her, and Boulet grew frustrated.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
The police team, with Inspector de Moulain, took Mark d
True in for interrogation. Lollievre was interrogated by another team
from enough Chateau, and Martin was held in waiting until
one of those teams would be free to interrogate her.
I told Captain Deneux, who was in charge of this
operation in Charlerois, that there was another team of judicial
(13:16):
police there, so let's use them to interrogate Martin. I
only had twenty four hours to hold these people, and
they moaned about the judicial police always arriving at the
eleventh hour, and I said, listen, as the King's prosecutor,
I'm the one who decides here, okay. I told them
they had to give Martin to another officer who was available,
(13:37):
and the gendarmes started complaining, et cetera, et cetera. Moreover,
just after having this altercation with an officer of the Gendarmerie,
I walked up to the window and see a guy
leaving the station and I said, who's that and someone
said it was the Lievre and I asked, is he leaving?
Speaker 6 (13:54):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (13:54):
They said the enough shot to investigators didn't think he'd
done anything wrong. And then Commander Law arrived, who had
been questioning neighbors at detru'z house in Marceinelle and Detruz
neighbors had said that they saw the True arrive home
in the van on Friday night together with Michelle the
olive skinned guy, and I said, who's Michelle the olive
(14:15):
skinned guy, and they said, oh, that's Michelle Lilievre, and
I said, well, he just fucked off out the door.
At that point all of the police again started looking
for Lollievre, who was now walking around freely in Charlewaugh.
We found him an hour later at the train station,
trying to flee to Slovakia.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Needless to say, it was a bumpy start to the arrest,
with different police forces interviewing suspects in the same case
and making uncoordinated decisions, but fortunately Prosecutor Boulat was there
to knock their heads together. After recapturing lo Lievre, the True,
his wife, Martin, and Lilliere were all being questioned separately
by interrogation teams. All of them denied any involvement right
(14:59):
from the beginning. De True was questioned for five hours
and admitted nothing. They left him alone in the interrogation
room for a few hours and then came back and
continued questioning him for another three hours until three am,
but he stuck to his story. The next morning, Judge
Conrad indicted to True for the disappearance of Letitia. Nonetheless,
(15:21):
meanwhilel Lievre was still being questioned and was suffering from
heroin withdrawal. One can't help but think that the police
used this to their advantage to get Li Lievre to talk.
In any case, he finally cracked and admitted that he
and a True had abducted Letitian bare Tree. This gave
police what they needed to continue holding and interrogating the
(15:43):
three suspects beyond twenty four hours, but the clock was
still ticking because Letitia was still unaccounted for. Lalievre vehemently
insisted that he didn't know what happened to Letitia and
that he just dropped her off with the True at
his house in Charlewaugh. As soon as that's the team
responsible for interrogating the True learned ofl Lievre's confession. Sergeant
(16:04):
Michelle du Moulain and his partner Jean Laboule, took another
crack at the True. After a long search, I was
able to track down Michelle du Moulain, and he agreed
to discuss the case. The recording is poor, so it
will fade out and you'll hear a translation.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
I was the most experienced investigator in the team, so
they asked me to take the lead on interrogating to True.
I proceeded like I usually do with suspects. I asked
him a lot of questions in order to get to
know him about his life, who did he live with,
what was his house like, and so on, to get
an idea about his personality. And I realized at one
(16:42):
point that he was a vain person and he needed
to be recognized in to be respected for what he was,
so I worked with that as well. The first time,
I questioned him from three point fifteen until around eight
thirty pm, and then took a break for about two hours,
and then I questioned him again from around eleven one
pm to four o'clock in the morning, and then he
(17:03):
said he had indeed heard about Letitia's disappearance, but he
had nothing to do with it. He'd seen her and
she'd actually gotten into his van at one point, but
that he let her go.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
With multiple witnesses having identified his van, the True must
have felt he had to admit something in order to
remain credible. By the end of a second interview, it
was four am and de Moulain was breathing down to
Truth's neck, so he decided to share some crumbs. Hear
the Truth's actual words from transcripts of this interview read
by an interpreter.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
I saw a cute girl. She was wearing a skimpy
summer outfit, and when she passed by, I said hello.
She was interested in my van and I told her
to jump in, and she sat down next to me.
We jetted a bait and I asked her ah, and
she said she was fifteen.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Years old or something like that.
Speaker 7 (17:58):
She said she was sped up and had family problems.
I could see she was open and easy. She wasn't afraid.
When I found out her age, I was disappointed and
decided I didn't want to have any troubles.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
And then she left.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
And the next day, on the fifteenth of August, I
was waiting for him with all of the elements, and
I interrogated him. Actually it wasn't even an interrogation. I
demonstrated to him that he was the author of the kidnapping,
and I squeezed him squeezed him, squeezed him, and to
avoid making him loose face in front of me, I
brought him along so he could admit it and to
(18:39):
take control. He said quote, it's not one girl I'm
going to give you, but two girls. And with that
in his mind, he became superior to me because he
was giving me more than what I was asking for.
It was a game for him, and he didn't want
(19:01):
to tell me where they were. He wanted to hold
me in suspense and take me to where he had
the girls. He said he wouldn't admit anything then, but
that he would go to Marcinelle with me.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
To get a deeper understanding of the True's character, I
was able to interview a man who spent a lot
of time with him, his lawyer, Ronnie Bodwain, My co
producer Thomas, and I met with him in his offices
in Brussels. After introductions and some chit chat, I asked
him about when the True became his client.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
From two thousand and three until fourteen, I was his lawyer,
which means that I have done the preparation of his
court case, the whole court case, and even years after that,
I have been in contact with.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Him, okay, and so you were in the thick of
it and spend I guess countless hours with your client.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Yes, Ronnie is a sprightly man, full of the energetic
confidence he'd want to have in your corner when facing
an uphill battle. I asked him to give his opinion
on a mental state of Mark the True.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
If you read the report of doctor Denas. He said,
I've done in my career. He was already at the
end of his career at the time that he was
coming to testify in court about the report that he
made on Mark the True, And I said, I've done
about four thousands of these expertises, you know, in investigations
towards the personality of somebody else, that I never met
(20:33):
anybody so close to one hundred percent psychopath. He says,
if I have to put something on that, I think
he must be about ninety seven or something, right. But
the strange thing is that it is exactly the one
thing of feelings that he had left that became his downfall,
and that is that pride, right, because there at a
certain moment the police commissioner Monsieur de Mulain, who did
(20:56):
the investigation, he also got to know through the investigation
how Mark the Trux was and you know, it's very silly,
but in fact he challenged him. He said, oh, but
you don't know anything about those girls that were abducted.
It inverse the rules, and he said, you're trying to
make me believe that you know something about them, and
(21:17):
Mark the true this pride, you know, overwhelming. He said,
oh no, I'm not going to give you one. I'm
going to give you another one. And he showed one
of the girls what that was on the billboard in
the police station. And suddenly, because they didn't even ask
anything to him about the second girl, they didn't even
realize that he was involved, Suddenly they had two girls.
(21:40):
And that is just by pushing on the one button
left where there is some feeling, and that.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Is this pride right.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
And I've used the same technique to let him do
things that I wanted him to do, because after a while,
you learn you know how people are acting. And I
had to spend many hours with him, so after while,
I was able to find out exactly what this Durmula
had found out as well on the personality.
Speaker 7 (22:05):
Of my client.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
When Da True finally cracked. He agreed to take police
where Sabine and Letitia were hidden, but he wouldn't just
give them the address. He wanted to stay in control
and watch it all happen. Little time was wasted before
De True was secreted away from the station to lead
a group of gendarmes to his house in Charlewis. He
(22:30):
led them down to a basement and walked over to
an unassuming shelf along the wall. He revealed that behind
it was a trap door that opened up into a
pitch black chamber beneath his house. Police shined their flashlights
into the darkness, and what they saw shocked them to
(22:52):
their core. Crouched into the corner of a dark and
damp dungeon were two naked girls, visibly scared to death
of whoever was coming for them. They were so afraid
that they refused to move until De True told him
it was okay. Remember from Sabine's letter that de True
(23:16):
had told her that he was hiding her from a
bad man who wanted to kill her.
Speaker 6 (23:20):
Give me to the bad man who would hurt me
and kill me.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
He had told the same story to Letitia, so both
girls were frightened to death. When they first saw the police.
At approximately six thirty pm on August fifteenth, nineteen ninety six,
all of Belgium in the world for that matter, witnessed
the surreal scene of Leticia de Les and Sabine Darden
(23:45):
emerging into the light after being rescued from De True's
House of Horrors in Charlewaugh. It was filmed live by
the Belgian TV channel VTM and the footage is both
harrowing and relieving. It wasn't long before or international media
picked up the story for the whole world to see.
Speaker 8 (24:04):
Twelve year old Sabine dar Den disappeared in May. Letitia
Dalais had been missing for only six days. Both were
imprisoned into truth makeshift dungeon. Patricia Kelly CNN Brussels.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Letitia emerged first, looking confused and disheveled, followed by a
pale and emaciated Sabine, who had spent eighty days in captivity,
most of them in the macabre dungeon. The King's prosecutor
addressed the nation in a press briefing shortly after the
discovery of the girls. A younger version of the man
I interviewed Michel Bourlet appeared in a crowded room full
(24:41):
of journalists, sitting next to the investigating judge, Jean Marc Conrad.
He was visibly tired with bloodshot eyes, but he also
exuded an overwhelming sense of relief.
Speaker 7 (24:53):
Gillie Mouspresi the USA Nose.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Later that evening, there were scenes of jubilation and euphoria
a Sabine and Letitia were reunited with their families on
live television. Most of the country breathed a sigh of relief,
(25:19):
and residents in Bertrie spontaneously assembled a bonfire to burn
the thousands of missing persons posters of the girls that
had been prepared for distribution. But the parents of the
other missing girls, like eight year olds Julie LeJean and
Melissa Russo and high schoolers Anne Martial and Effie Alambrics,
(25:39):
waited on pens and needles, wondering if their disappearances were
also connected to the true news of the sordid dungeon,
and testimonies of Sabine and Letitia slowly started to trickle out.
Speaker 9 (25:53):
This basement and the crimes committed here have made this
house notorious. Every Belgium knows about mark chamber of horrors
that they must come here and see for themselves just
how desperate and sordid conditions were for the girls held
prisoner here. Julia Bremner ITV News Charlois.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
The world was about to learn the extent of the
horrors of the true and its accomplices. Sabine and letitious
rescue was only the beginning of a story that would
shark the world and rattle the foundations of Belgium next
(26:35):
time on La Montre.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
I know I've studied the file, and I've studied, amongst
other things, I've studied the relationship between them both, and
I'm sure that at that time it was possible for
him to do that because he had found literally but
also in a figure of speech, a partner in crime.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Should have been Jano beating nineteen eighty six. My gods,
it was just a beginning. What happens after he got
out of prison is just beyond believing.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Lo Monstra is a production of Tenderfoot TV and iHeart Radio,
hosted and executive produced by me Matt Graves, produced by
Thomas Resimont of Bubble Sound. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay
are executive producers. On the behalf of Tenderfoot TV with
producer Makeup and Vanity Set. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams
are executive producers on the behalf of iHeartRadio with producer
(27:43):
Trevor Young. Original music by Jay Ragsdale, Sound design by
Cooper Skinner and Thomas Resimont, mixed and mastered by Cooper Skinner.
Cover design by Trevor eilerl Monstra includes archival audio from SONYMA,
RTBF Archive and CNN Archives. Special thanks to Backmedia and
(28:04):
Marketing Station sixteen, Jean Savigna, and the teams at iHeartRadio
and Tenderfoot TV. Find us on social media at Monster
Underscore pod. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio or Tenderfoot TV,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Host
Matt Graves
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