Two faces continue to haunt Belgium and beyond, thirty years after their crimes. Marc Dutroux and Michelle Martin are at the origin of a series of kidnappings, kidnappings, rapes and murders of young girls committed between 1995 and 1996. The conditions and the perversity of the violence caused immense emotion in the kingdom, before becoming a state affair. Several institutional reforms were adopted following the affair. “Marc Dutroux and Michelle Martin traumatized Belgium, but also a large part of France, particularly the cross-border regions,” remembers the former attorney general of Charleville-Mézières Francis Nachbar. The crimes of this couple of serial killers, with young girls kidnapped to abuse them, are impossible to forget.” “This case and this couple are exceptional because it is one of the first long-term kidnappings in Europe for sexual reasons, with an organized gang and hiding places,” notes Jacques Dallest, former attorney general*.
But let's go back in history. When they met at the ice rink in 1981, Michelle Martin was 21 years old and Marc Dutroux 24 years old. The eldest of an extremely rigid couple before they divorced, Marc Dutroux, married to escape his mother's home, has two children, and lives through undeclared odd jobs and theft. Marked by the death of her father when she was 6 years old, suffocated by a possessive mother, Michelle Martin studies to become a teacher. Experts would later describe Marc Dutroux as a narcissistic pervert and a psychopath who knew how to spot Michelle Martin's flaws as soon as they met. The two moved in before Dutroux's divorce was finalized in 1983, and had a first child. Former acquaintances of the young woman report her sudden change in behavior, submissive and neglectful.
A “criminal pact entered into knowingly”
The “criminal pact entered into knowingly”, according to Jean-Luc Ployé, the most serious crimes took place in 1995 and 1996. Six Belgian girls and teenagers were kidnapped, raped, and four of them killed. Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo, 8 years old, disappeared on June 24, 1995, before An Marchal (17 years old) and Eefje Lambrecks (19 years old), on August 22. Sabine Dardenne, 12 years old, disappeared on May 28, 1996, then Laëtitia Delhez (14 years old) on August 9. The investigation into the disappearance of the latter led, on August 13, to the arrest of the couple and an accomplice, Michel Lelièvre. The husband's indications and partial confessions make it possible to discover Sabine and Laëtitia, alive, in the cache of the house owned by Dutroux in Marcinelle, then to find the bodies of the other victims. Julie and Mélissa, who died of starvation, were buried in the garden of the house in Sars-la-Buissière where Michelle Martin lives. The wife knew of the girls' captivity, but did nothing to help them while Marc Dutroux was in detention for another case of kidnapping. “The victims are not considered as subjects, but objects for which they have no empathy, nor any real guilt a posteriori,” assesses Jean-Luc Ployé. Height of horror: During a search of Marc Dutroux's home in Marcinelle, and while Julie and Melissa were alive, locked in a hiding place in the cellar, the gendarmes, who had nevertheless heard children's voices, missed the hiding place. The bones of An and Eefje were found in Jumet, under the hangar of French associate Bernard Weinstein, killed by Dutroux for fear of being betrayed.
Exasperated by the failures of the police and justice, particularly after the withdrawal of a judge accused of impartiality after having shared one for a charity meal for the benefit of the victims' families, Belgian society stands up and demands accountability. On October 20, 1996, more than 350,000 people marched in Brussels during the White March, paralyzing the country to demand an overhaul of institutions. Several reforms were adopted shortly after, including the reorganization of the police forces and the modernization of Belgian judicial procedures. “There were undoubtedly failures, and as in all major cases, this had the merit of modernizing the procedures,” notes former magistrate Francis Nachbar.
The break during the “trial of the century”
Marc Dutroux and Michelle Martin are in detention. For legal and administrative reasons, the couple divorced in 2003, a few months before the Arlon trial, one of the most publicized in Belgium. In addition to the crimes committed against Belgian children, the couple is on trial for the sexual violence committed between 1994 and 1996 against three Slovak nationals, Eva Mackova, 16 years old, her sister Yanka Mackova, 15 years old, and Henrieta Palusova, 21 years old. Attracted by the ruse, chemically subjected, the three were raped by Marc Dutroux, sometimes with the help of Michelle Martin, acts filmed by the executioner.
During this trial, described as the "trial of the century", the couple's breakup was complete. Michelle Martin's defense strategy bases her defense on the denunciation of the psychological influence and terror that Marc Dutroux allegedly exerted on her. The reports from psychiatric experts reveal a more complex perverse couple dynamic. “This type of couple works in synergy, one feeding the other, in a dependence and an all-powerful effect,” analyzes Jean-Luc Ployé, who studied the couple Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier. Although Michelle Martin attempts to present herself as a passive victim, criminal complicity is absolute. Marc Dutroux is sentenced to life imprisonment, Michelle Martin to 30 years in prison and the accomplice Michel Lelièvre, who collaborated in the kidnapping and captivity of four teenage girls, to 25 years.
In 2026, thirty years after these crimes, Marc Dutroux continues to serve his sentence in Nivelles prison, and is the target of an investigation for possession of child pornography images in his solitary cell. Michelle Martin was released from prison in 2012, and Michel Lelièvre in 2019. If the courts prohibit Marc Dutroux and Michelle Martin from having any contact, Jean-Luc Ployé believes that “this type of couple of killers, which remains very rare in society, is immortal in the sense that the relationship experienced between them was so intense and inhuman that they are sealed for life”.
