Pedophiles never stop. They repeat a strikingly similar pattern of criminality with each victim. Country borders, distance, and insurmountable obstacles do not deter them as they search for their next prey.
Pedophiles are fearless, driven, bold, and reckless in pursuit of innocent children. They brag about their conquests. There are often witnesses to their exploitation, by some willing participants, by terrified observers or simply innocent bystanders.
Marc Dutroux, the Monster of Belgium spent a lifetime hunting down children by abducting them off the street, raping them, secreting them in locked dungeons and killing them. Shockingly, there were people who knew and participated in his criminality. There were others who learned of his evil behavior. Some people even warned the police that Marc Dutroux must be stopped and was a prime suspect in the 1995 disappearance of 8 year olds Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo. Julie and Mélissa were kidnapped together from Grace-Hollogne, Belgium, a suburb of Liege on 24 June 1995, and imprisoned in Dutroux's hidden dungeon. Dutroux repeatedly sexually abused the girls and produced pornographic videos of the abuse.
Following the disappearance of Julie and Melissa in the Walloon (French) section of Belgium, two teenage girls An and Eefje went missing in the Flemish (Dutch) part of Belgium. Then nearly a year later, two more girls, Sabine and Laeticia went missing in the South of Belgium. Girls were literally disappearing off the streets of Belgium.
At the request of the searching parents, I provided technical assistance to assist in the investigation. I advised the Belgian police that the files and investigations of all these missing girls should be combined because in my opinion one pedophile ring was responsible for all these missing children. My opinion was summarily dismissed by the Belgian police who said that I didn’t understand the geography of Belgium; some girls went missing in the Flanders section and others in the Walloon section. So, therefore, the police opined, the cases were unrelated. I responded that, “I understand pedophiles and these missing girls are the work of one man.” My analysis was ultimately correct. In 1996, Marc Dutroux was arrested for the abduction of all 6 girls, 4 of whom were murdered.
Shockingly, some people knew that Marc Dutroux was a pedophile who abducted children right off the street. A few people warned the police and were ignored or dismissed. The police also ignored his previous conviction for abduction and raping of young girls. Who knew about Marc Dutroux?
1. His wife, Michelle Martin was aware of the Julie and Melissa, age 8 being held as his sex slaves in a constructed dungeon complicit. She never contacted the police and was convicted along with Dutroux and served 16 years of a 35 year sentence.
2. His mother, when teenagers An and Eefje’s disappeared, Dutroux’s own mother wrote the police a letter warning them about her son who was holding two teenage girls in a dungeon in his house. The police did nothing.
3. His tenant - Dutroux owned several houses. One of Dutroux’s tenants had a conversation with him where Dutroux told him how to abduct and subdue children from the street and sell them into pedophile trafficking rings. The tenant immediately told the police and he was ignored.
4. His previous conviction-In 1989 Dutroux and Martin were arrested and convicted for abducting and raping 5 young girls. He was released in 1992 on parole after serving only 3 years of a 13 year sentence for good behavior. He began his kidnapping rampage again.
Like the Marc Dutroux case, someone knows the person(s) who abducted Madeleine McCann on the night of May 3, 2007, in the resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal.
British police are now taking the lead in the Madeleine McCann abduction investigation. They are searching for a man who broke into Portuguese resorts in 2004 and 2006 and sexually assaulted 5 other British girls. The resorts are 48 km from Praia da Luz. British Police are providing a general description of the man along with the crime scene similarities to Madeleine’s abduction:
• Officers are now investigating a dozen potentially linked crimes at resorts near where the three-year-old vanished.
• In each of the cases, a man described as tanned and with short, dark, unkempt hair, is suspected of breaking in to vacation homes where British families were staying in the Algarve.
• In four of the incidents, girls between 7 and 10 years of age were sexually assaulted in their beds.
• Witnesses said he spoke in English with a foreign accent, his voice described as slow or possibly slurred.
I am not familiar with the geography of Portugal, but I know pedophiles. This much I know: Someone knows who took Madeleine. If you know, tell Scotland Yard. Break free of your fear. Madeleine’s abductor will strike again. Some innocent little girl is asleep in her bed blissfully unaware of the monster that roams free. May the words of Marc Dutroux’s mother ring in your ears, “He is a recidivist in his soul, he has proven it all his life... I am certain he will start again.”
You know his name. The truth will set you free....and possibly Madeleine.
Scotland Yard Madeleine McCann tipline (for outside UK)
T: +44 207 1580 126
About Elizabeth Yore
Elizabeth Yore is an attorney and international child advocate. She has spent 30 years in legal child advocacy fighting child exploitation in the U.S. and abroad.
Recently, she served as Special Counsel at Harpo, as Oprah Winfrey’s child advocate. She served as General Counsel and Director of the International Division at National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Virginia, where she searched for abducted children around the world and assisted the parents of the missing children in the Dutroux case.
E: efyore@aol.com
W: www.yorechildren.com
Twitter: @elizabethyore