Ils wanted to end their old days in the sun. Laura Trappeniers, 66, and her husband Marc Olbrechts, 71, left Belgium a few years ago for the island of Tenerife, in the Canaries, where the thermometer rarely drops below 20°C. There, on this island that looks like paradise, they spent happy days, surrounded by a few faithful friends. But at the end of April, everything changed. And the dream turned into a nightmare.
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April 22. Marc and Laura are nowhere to be found. Their car is missing. In their house, the lamps are lit. A mobile phone is on the table. Just like a little piece of chocolate that Marc or Laura were about to eat. The couple seems to have vanished! On April 24, two days after their mysterious disappearance, a wanted notice was issued.
In the neighborhood, there is great concern. Especially since Laura had expressed a feeling of unease a few days earlier: men had come to find her to rent the house next to theirs. A house that they rent out. But the transaction could not go through and Laura had received threats… Even more disturbing: a man was filmed near Marc and Laura’s house, and allegedly broke into their home. Images from surveillance cameras were used as part of the investigation. On April 27, the affair turned into a tragedy. A true horror film.
Laura’s body is found in the Atlantic Ocean. His legs and one hand were sawed off. She had a plastic bag around her head. Everything suggests a very violent death. The couple’s car, an Opel Moka, was found a few days later. A knife was found in the vehicle.
As for Marc, he is still nowhere to be found. Is he dead too? The Guardia Civil assumes that it is a double murder and is investigating this. But no one can say this with absolute certainty.
Two bodies in a Clio
What we know with certainty, however, is that three men were arrested on Thursday.
One was arrested in Tenerife, while the other two were seized on Belgian soil, in Mons.
It appears that the two men arrested in Belgium are a father and son. They would be of Belgian-Italian origin. They were heard by an investigating judge and placed in detention.
According to the Nieuwsblad, which questioned the father’s lawyer, Me Cochez, his client denies any involvement. It would be PA, a former restaurateur from Mons.
The two men – father and son – could be extradited to Spain, where the murder was committed, in order to be handed over to Spanish judicial authorities and to be tried in the country. But the Montois restaurateur does not see it that way and his lawyer will oppose it.
According to our colleagues, PA came into the crosshairs of investigators in particular because his car, a Renault Clio, was allegedly used to transport the couple’s bodies. Someone allegedly came out of Marc and Laura’s house with a large bag containing two corpses. This person and perhaps a second then loaded the bodies into a Renault Clio, after which the duo took to the road. The bodies were then allegedly transferred to another car. “My client, who until recently owned a restaurant in Tenerife, had a residence close to that of the murdered couple. He knew these people, because everyone knows each other there. But there was certainly no problem between the couple and my client,” explains Me Cochez to our Flemish colleagues. “My client is a hard-working self-employed person who has no criminal record, or even any legal history. It is strange that such a person would suddenly commit a double murder.”
