Campsite murder: police speak of “horrific horror scene”

They became suspicious of the driving behavior of Kelly D., who had been called in by Romuald V. (35) to solve the problem.

In the night of 6 to 7 December 2017, the Middelkerke police left around 2 a.m. to carry out a BOB check in Sint-Pieters-Kapelle. A vehicle coming from Steenovenstraat caught their attention. “Local residents use that as a shortcut to evade normal checks,” said inspector Maarten Wijckmans. The Seat Ibiza also drove along the Spermaliestraat barely 50 kilometers per hour, while 70 is the maximum allowed speed. “The vehicle also swayed a bit and we thought the driver had been drinking.”

Despite the blue lights, the driver did not immediately pull over. After that, Kelly D. and Bruno C. stood out, respectively, because of a bandage and tape on their hands. “Romuald was also quieter than usual. Otherwise he was much more fierce and had a much bigger mouth. He was just like a beaten schoolchild who had just been punished.”

In addition, the police officers saw a blanket in a very stuffed suitcase, which D. only wanted to open after three attempts. “A knee fell out. We saw blackened, loose skin and several stab wounds. We also saw a windpipe and a lot of blood, but no head.”

horror scene

Romuald V. and Kelly D. pointed out to the police that they still had to arrest Julien B. (35) and a certain Alain D. or Alain S. at the Marva campsite. Meanwhile, Alain D. (48) had called the police himself, “because someone was destroying a caravan”. After some insistence, B. left caravan 116 and he could be handcuffed. “There was a floor mat with ‘Welcome’ on it. I will never forget that. What I saw there is a horror scene from a movie. The floor was covered in blood. The bath, the wall, the shower curtain, nothing else than blood,” said inspector Wijckmans. Chief Inspector Kevin Schoutteet also described the horror as absurd. “Actually, you don’t realize what actually happened until the days after. My hair straightens every time I think about it.”

According to inspector Wijckmans, Julien B.’s socks were covered in blood and possibly even human remains. Alain D. and the aforementioned Alain S. turned out to be one and the same person a little later. The accused was betrayed by his black crocs who were also completely covered in blood.

At the time of the murder, Julien B. had been released for barely a month and a half under conditions for acts of violent theft. He was well known to the local police. “We knew he could be very strange. We knew him as a dangerous person because he was so unpredictable,” said Chief Inspector Schoutteet.

Romuald V. was also often involved in nuisance. “But Romuald was more of an intermediary, a mediator. He could calm Julien if it seemed to escalate.”

Body set on fire

A bloody duvet was discovered at caravan 94 a few hours after the incident. “From the doorway I could see that there were also traces of blood and soot in the caravan itself,” said Chief Inspector Dieter Dobbels. It turned out afterwards that D. and B. had set the body of Mihael Parrent on fire in that caravan.

For the detectives of the Middelkerke police zone, Alain D. was an old acquaintance. “He knew us from the investigation we conducted into the sale of drugs,” said Chief Inspector Thierry Declercq. “He said in the detention center that ‘l’homme mort’ was a clochard that had stolen from them.”

A couple of friends of D. told something similar in an interrogation. D. had invited them to dinner in his chalet on the evening of the facts. “They know of a Micha who is said to have emptied Alain and Julien’s fridge.”

This afternoon the members of the disembarkation team will have their say.