The jury found B. guilty of manslaughter on student Julie Van Espen on May 4, 2019, believes that there is also premeditation leading to murder and that he also raped the student before killing her.
never arrived
Julie Van Espen (23) from Schilde disappeared on 4 May 2019. The International Relations and Diplomacy student had left home that Saturday evening by bike to Antwerp, where she had met friends, but never arrived. Her friends and relatives immediately went in search of her with all their might. The police also immediately regarded her disappearance as alarming and organized a search operation.
A day later, her handbag, bloodied clothing and bicycle basket were found near the old Mayor Gabriel Theunisbrug on the Albert Canal in Merksem. It was also there that her cell phone signal was last picked up. The police looked at the available camera images in the area and saw a man with a large backpack holding her bicycle basket in his hands.
Search message
The images – albeit without the bicycle basket – were distributed via a search message. The man with the backpack was described in it as an “important witness” in the disappearance of Julie Van Espen. The message was massively shared and several hundred tips came in. It didn’t take long before he was identified as 41-year-old Steve B., a man who already had several convictions to his name and then lived on the street.
His mobile phone signal was traced and he could be picked off the train at Leuven station on 6 May. Meanwhile, the search for the student continued unabated. Boats were used to search the Albert Canal, along Julie Van Espen’s bicycle route. Her body was removed from the water that same day.
B. confessed during the investigation that he was responsible for the death of the student. The forty-something had been sleeping under the Mayor Gabriel Theunisbrug for a while. When he noticed the blond girl that night, he had dragged her off her bike. He wanted to rape her, but she resisted violently. B. had strangled her and thrown her body into the Albert Canal.
Closed doors
The relatives of Julie Van Espen had insisted at the start of the trial last week for a session behind closed doors, so without the presence of the press and the public. The prosecution and the defense had not objected to this. The assize chairwoman decided to respond to the request of the bourgeois parties. The questioning of Steve B. and the questioning of all witnesses therefore took place behind closed doors.