With the arrest of a 51-year-old Albanian, the Antwerp justice department believes it has caught the perpetrator of a gruesome murder of a 17-year-old prostitute in 1999. The girl’s body was found on the night of May 16, 1999 at the Dries in Antwerp. found it. The Romanian Iona B. turned out to have been terribly stabbed with a knife and died as a result of those wounds.
False identity
The forensic doctor counted about 20 cuts and stab wounds. The investigation revealed that the victim had been seen with her suspected pimp in a nearby café shortly before her death. Witnesses had seen a man running away. This man stayed in Belgium with a false identity.
He managed to escape abroad and, despite vigorous investigations in Europe, could not be caught. The case then turned into a cold case.
Glove
After consultation between the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office and the Federal Judicial Police (FGP), the investigation was reopened and the DNA evidence was examined again in 2020. It now turned out to be possible to determine a DNA profile on a glove that was left at the scene of the incident.
The suspect is said to have left Albania in 1993 and arrived in Italy in 2002. He had used a false identity for this. In Italy he was checked several times by the police, but not arrested.
According to the Gazet van Antwerpen, he was eventually arrested in Rome this spring.
The Albanian was flown to Belgium on April 5.
A comparative DNA test has now established a positive match with the suspect’s DNA
