Location: Charleroi and Marcinelle, Belgium (1995-1996) đ§đȘ
The Story: Marc Dutroux was a known criminal, previously convicted for the abduction and rape of young girls in 1989. Despite a psychiatric report declaring him "extremely dangerous," he was released on parole after only three years. Back in society, he used state disability benefits to purchase several houses. In one, in Marcinelle, he secretly constructed a soundproof dungeon in the basement. Between 1995 and 1996, he, his wife Michelle Martin, and accomplices kidnapped at least six girls, aged 8 to 19. He imprisoned them in his makeshift cells, where they were systematically tortured, sexually abused, and filmed. Four of the girls,including 12-year-olds Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, who starved to death in his dungeon while he was briefly in jail for car theft,were murdered. Their bodies were buried in his garden. đ·
The Twist: The true horror of the case lies not just in Dutroux's crimes, but in the systemic, jaw-dropping failure of the Belgian state. Police had searched his house twice while the girls were alive in the dungeon but failed to find the hidden cell. The justice system had prematurely released a known monster. The investigation was marred by incompetence, infighting between police forces, and widespread suspicion of corruption and high-level protection, perhaps because Dutroux was a police informant. The public outrage peaked with the White March, where 300,000 Belgians took to the streets, forcing a complete overhaul of the country's police and judicial systems. Dutroux, "the Beast of Belgium," exposed not just a monstrous individual, but a monstrous failure of the institutions meant to protect the innocent. â