Was the owner of Ding Dong tavern in Ostend murdered? Investigators are still trying to find an answer to that question. An autopsy was performed on the body of the catering man on Monday, but for his family it remains a guess as to a cause of death. “The only thing we know is that my brother was on the first floor,” says Danny Vanhaeren’s sister (55).
Danny has been running tavern Ding Dong on the Ostend Vegetable Market for fifteen years. Although he opened less often than before. Last week, however, the door remained closed every day, remarkably enough. “But the lights were on and the music was playing,” says a local resident. “Normally we saw him walking to the supermarket down the road every day. But nobody had seen him since Tuesday.” Neighbors became concerned and informed the police. He went to look and found Danny’s body on the first floor, above the tavern.
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The case was immediately considered a suspicious death. The fire brigade closed the broken open door of the tavern with a wooden plate and the body of the owner was confiscated. A medical examiner was appointed to investigate the cause of his death. Because there was still a lot of uncertainty on Friday, an investigating judge was also requested. “The case is currently under investigation,” the prosecutor’s office said on Sunday. “We are trying to determine the exact cause of death. But we can’t say more about that yet.”
Many questions
Danny’s family also had to wait for a weekend. After the death of the Ostend catering man, they were left with a lot of questions. “It’s all very suspicious,” says his sister Marina. “Danny was above the tavern. But not in the bed he has there. We just find that strange.” Marina had less contact with her brother in recent months. He had a hard time after his marriage had come to an end. “But he wouldn’t hurt a fly. He loved his tavern and loved nothing more than to be among people. I don’t know who would want to hurt him? We will now have to wait and see what the outcome of the investigation will be.”
An autopsy was already performed on Danny’s body on Monday, although the public prosecutor’s office could not yet say what the results were. The relatives of the Ostend catering man were also not informed on Monday evening. “It remains a big mystery what happened to Danny”, it sounds. “We have already had a few bad days and hope to have more news soon.”
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