UPDATEThe East Flemish public prosecutor’s office is conducting an investigation in Kerkstraat in Sint-Martens-Latem. Human remains were found behind a house on Saturday. It may be Annie De Poortere, a woman who disappeared without a trace thirty years ago. “My mother would have contacted me if she had run away,” her son testified to VTM several years ago. DNA testing should provide a definitive answer.
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The Kerkstraat in Sint-Martens-Latem was closed off for several hours on Saturday evening as part of a judicial investigation. The public prosecutor’s office arrived on the scene, as did the Civil Protection and the Missing Persons Unit. Physical remains were found right next to the house (seen on the right in the video footage above, ed.) where Annie De Poortere lived with her husband. The woman disappeared on November 12, 1994 at the age of 48.
Before her disappearance, De Poortere had already been admitted to a psychiatric institution several times and there were plans for a new admission. When her husband returned from a football match on the evening of November 12, Annie was gone. Just like her clothes that were still on the couch before.
“I was living alone at the time of her disappearance, but I saw her every day. And if I couldn’t visit, I would definitely call her,” her son testified in 1999 to the Call 2020 investigation program. He emphasized at the time that he did not believe she had run away: “She would certainly contact me if she consciousness is.”
Also read: Son of missing Annie De Poortere speaks for the first time: “Suddenly we have to take murder into account. We just have more questions” (+)
In 1999, five years after her disappearance, Annie was declared ‘absent’ by the court. This happened at the request of her husband. Such a declaration of absence has the same consequences as a death: the inheritance can be divided and the marriage can also be dissolved. There was another theory that Annie had started a new life in Spain, but clarity never came.
LOOK. Drone images show where the body was probably found, behind a garage in the garden:
Chance
“The remains were found by chance,” Alain Remue of the Missing Persons Unit explains to VTM NIEUWS. According to him, workmen came across the remains by chance. “Coincidence in our job can be useful,” Remue adds. He illustrates this with examples of other cases where skeletal remains have been found during activities such as hunts or corn harvests.
Remue acknowledges that a lot of time has passed, but he is relieved that after all these years, the relatives may get answers. “It may not be a complete answer yet, but it is very important. This is actually bad news, but bad news is better than no news. There are family members who have questions that may now be answered,” Remue said. At this time, the medical examiner will investigate what can still be found out about how the woman died.
LOOK. “The remains were found by chance,” explains Alain Remue of the Missing Persons Unit
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WATCH ALSO. In 1999, Annie De Poortere’s ex-husband and son testified in the VTM investigative program ‘Oproep 2020’
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WATCH ALSO. Has the garden not been searched after disappearance? Rosalie Pieters explains
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Tags: Missing Annie Poortere years Human remains house SintMartensLatem Ghent
