Juliette Goormans was found after disappearing on November 14, 2022 in Vedrin, near Namur. Then aged 17, Juliette was described as “lonely” and hypersensitive by her relatives. The young girl had already run away twice before her disappearance and had even disappeared for three days in 2020 to be found in the Netherlands. On Thursday, June 27, it was in Villeurbanne, in the metropolis of Lyon, that Juliette Goormans was found thanks to close collaboration between the Belgian and French police.
Thursday, Namur magistrate Henri Bertens spoke at a press conference. According to the magistrate, information would have been transmitted to the police responsible for investigating Juliette’s disappearance “a few days ago”, as reported by BFMTV. “According to this information, she could be in the home of a person in France and more precisely in the Lyon region.“, he explained. This tip led to a search of the home in question, where the teenager was found “alive and in good health”. She was then taken into care by the police of the commune of Villeurbanne.
Henri Bertens also declared that the young girl had been with a French resident in Villeurbanne “voluntarily” for a year and would have been “free to move” there. More information is still to follow since the investigation is still ongoing and “must in particular make it possible to specify the exact circumstances of the disappearance, and the conditions in which Juliette Goormans resided with the French national“. “She is an adult and is now free to disappear. I ask that the privacy of the family be respected“, concluded the Namur magistrate.
The grandfather of Juliette Goormans, who disappeared a year ago, testifies: “Something serious happened”
The family reacts
Since her return, Juliette’s family has been over the moon. His big brother has already reacted on - and BFMTV. “I was at work and a colleague came to tell me that the media had just announced it.“, he said.It’s like I won the lottery.“The big brother, who explained that he had declared the day before to an acquaintance that his sister was going to call him “in two days or even in two years”, is above all worried about what his sister may have experienced.”First I want her to tell me that everything is fine and that she hasn’t suffered from the many months she spent away from us.“, he testified. “Afterwards, I would like to know why she was in Lyon and above all, in what conditions. Sometimes I thought and said to myself that I would rather she was dead than that she had been abused.“
For his part, her grandfather said that Juliette’s life “has changed.”She seems to be in great shape“, did he declare. “Of course we want to see it, listen to it, understand it, but that will be a second step“, confessed the grandfather.”It’s a path that will take time.”
