“After an investigation lasting a year and a half, the young girl from Namur Juliette Goormans was found, free, alive and in good health, today, at the home of a resident of the Lyon region.” It was with this sentence that the public prosecutor’s office in Namur, Belgium, announced that a teenager who disappeared at the age of 17 in Belgium had been found in France on Thursday.
Under what conditions did the teenager disappear?
On November 14, 2022, Juliette Goormans, 17, left her father and stepmother’s home on rue Dewez in Namur as she did every morning to take the bus to the “La Sitrée” school, an establishment for “adolescents aged 12 to 21, experiencing difficulties in academic learning, communication and behavior and in integrating into society”, in Vedrin, in the suburbs of Namur. She left school at 2:30 p.m., instead of the usual 4 p.m. schedule. One of her teachers saw her in a small supermarket in Vedrin. She was then seen under a bus shelter on rue Gustave Guidet in Vedrin.
This is the last sign of life from the teenager, who has a slight mental retardation. This is not her first runaway but her third: the first time, in November 2019, Juliette was found the same day in Liège; the second time, in January 2020, she disappeared three days before being located in the north of France, in Bray-Dunes, more than 200 km from Vedrin. “There is a logical explanation each time. In Liège, it was to find her mother. And in France, she knew the area because she had spent a few days of vacation there with her grandfather,” testified her half-brother Yani, 12 years her senior.
Presented as hypersensitive, undoubtedly easily influenced but resourceful and sociable with those close to her, but a little withdrawn, Juliette, when she disappeared, liked to listen to music and watch television series in her room. A week before her disappearance, Juliette and Yani had attended the funeral of their maternal grandmother; they had planned to spend the end of year holidays in Germany, with their brother.
What means were implemented to find it?
The investigation to find Juliette, considered “vulnerable”, involved the local police services of Namur, the federal judicial police of Namur, the Missing Persons Unit, the Belgian and French associations Child Focus and Assistance et Recherche de Personnes Disparues. As soon as the disappearance was reported, the investigators began looking for Juliette. Her phone stopped transmitting, the investigators assumed that she probably took the bus back to Namur, and that she then went to Brussels. She did not have a bank card. She does not speak Flemish, one of the two official languages of Belgium.
An appeal has been launched to find the 1m68 girl, with a slim build and mid-length brown hair. Her profile specified that she had a mole above her lip and a birthmark of about 2.5 cm on the outside of her right thigh. Investigators are looking for “friends or people who may have helped her but also people she could have confided in”. Residents of Vedrin are also asked to check their photos, selfies and videos taken on November 14 and 15, 2022, to see if Juliette appears in the background.
No conclusive information was provided to support the case and in January 2023, the prosecution announced that it was a priority. Child Focus launched a poster campaign, and testimonies poured in which, according to the police, showed that the young girl had been seen several times in the Namur region.
In March 2023, Yani explained to L’Avenir “posting posters in Namur, Liège, Charleroi” and taking “the time to discuss with people in the street, certain people who would perhaps not speak to the police” hoping that they had heard of elements allowing them to find his younger sister. In November 2023, a year after her disappearance, her grandfather Jean-Claude Devyver, who spent a lot of time with his little daughter, expressed “a vital desire that she give us a sign of life”.
How did she get to Lyon?
Juliette had been living in Lyon with a French national “for about a year on a voluntary basis and was said to have been free to move around”, according to Henri Bertens, the Namur magistrate who spoke at a press conference on Thursday afternoon. According to him, the investigators in charge of Juliette’s disappearance had received “information” a few days ago that allowed her to be located in the Lyon region, and more specifically in Villeurbanne. A call for collaboration was launched and on Thursday morning, the Villeurbanne police carried out a search of this person’s home, during which Juliette was found safe and sound.
Who did she live with and why?
The ongoing investigation will have to determine this. “We found her alive, in good health and free to move around, which is excellent news in itself,” said Henri Bertens. According to him, Juliette had been living with this “French national” for about a year. The investigation must specify what links she had with him.
“As of today, the young woman is an adult and free to determine where she wishes to reside,” the magistrate concluded, asking that “the privacy of the family be respected.”
