Juliette Goormans, a 17-year-old girl from Namur, has been missing for fifty days. Her brother David no longer believes in the scenario that she just ran away and therefore makes an emotional appeal to Sudpresse colleagues. “If someone kidnapped her, please let her go.”
Six days ago, the public prosecutor’s office launched a search notice. Juliette was last seen on November 14 at the Carrefour Market in Vedrin. A few days later, a surveillance camera picked her up at a Resto du Coeur establishment in Namur. Since then, every trace has been missing.
“That was in the early days of her disappearance. Maybe she was looking for something to eat. At the time I thought she had just run away. After all, she had already achieved that in 2020,” says David.
Grandma passed away
But fifty days without any news from his beloved sister? He can’t reach that with his mind either. “That is way too long for her to do. If a friend from her class gave her shelter, wouldn’t we know something by now? If only to reassure us…”
The police are completely puzzled. “The mobile phone investigation turned up nothing. She could have taken the train with her season ticket, but no trip was recorded. And at school her friends don’t know anything either.”
“Some recent events have had an impact on her. Our grandmother died and apparently Juliette also had a fight at school. That made her even more upset.”
“Awake six hours a night”
David now fears that his sister has run into the wrong person. “Perhaps someone saw her wandering the street when it was so bitterly cold and suggested they warm up in his house. If she is detained, I beg the kidnapper to release her.”
Worst-case scenarios flash through David’s head. ”I crawl into bed at 9 pm, but I don’t sleep a wink until 3 am. It keeps spinning in my head. After fifty days, the chances are very high that something serious has happened to her.”
From door to door
David himself has not been idle either. “We have already been door to door in Namur, in Huy where I live and in Liège where my brothers live. Maybe she wanted to come to one of us and couldn’t remember the exact address. I have shared her search notice everywhere. If I could, I’d smash all doors open to find her again.”
For David, his family’s agony has gone on long enough. “Juliette deserves to be happy. She is such a sweet and sensitive girl, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt her,” he concludes.
Anyone who has seen the girl or knows where she is staying can contact the investigators via [email protected] or the free number 0800 30 30 0 or via Child Focus on 116 000.
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