Sunday June 17, 2007, a couple entered the door of a store specializing in curtains and carpets in the center of Brussels. They come to pick up their order, but the shop is deserted. Approaching the counter, customers discover a bloody body, that of the owner of the shop, Caroline Storme, 48 ans.
Emergency services and the police are called. In the reserve, at the back of the store, they come across the owner, François-Xavier Storme, 48 years old, collapsed against a bloodstained wall. Next to him lies their 21-year-old daughter. who everyone calls Carlouchka. The killer(s) attacked the Stormes: 33 stab wounds on the mother’s body, 24 for her husband and 44 for the hastily undressed daughter. The deaths date back to the day before.
Those close to the Storme family describe a hard-working, close-knit family. Their two children were destined to become engineers. Carlushka was very bright. Léopold, the youngest, 19 years old, was a little less serious. At the time of the tragedy, he was far from the store.
Sunday June 17, five hours after the discovery of the bodies, Léopold Storme returned to Brussels. The police officers who greet him are surprised that the young man asks no questions. In his bag, we find a little cannabis. Léopold says he has been using drugs since the age of sixteen. The investigators observed that the young man had numerous marks of cuts on the hands. He said he was injured Thursday while moving a machine in the family store. For other brands, these are recent self-mutilations. A shoe print size 45, like him, was found mixed with the victims’ blood.
A bloodstain that sows doubt
Monday June 18, Léopold Storme is charged with assassinations by Judge Berta Bernardo-Mendez. It indicates thathe returned to the store on Saturday June 16 from Ostend. He had forgotten some notebooks for his revisions. Upon entering the store, he said he found himself faced with a hooded man. He fought. Another masked man appeared with a knife. Then he received a blow to the head. He woke up twenty minutes later and saw the bodies of his father and sister. Storme says he was covered in blood. He was panicked, convinced that he was going to be accused. He cleaned the room. He stripped his sister naked to make it seem like rape and thus exonerate him.
Tuesday June 3, 2008, one year after the crimes, Me Pierre Huet, lawyer for Léopold Storme confirms the presence of unknown blood at the crime scene. “These are DNA traces that we would say are old, but we don’t know who they belong to. These traces were compared to a whole series of people including friends of Léopold Storme. The owner of this DNA has not been identified, but this proves that the investigators did not immediately rule out the presence of other people on the scene”, indicates Dominique Demoulin, journalist at RTL-TVI who followed this affair.
Léopold Storme, however, remains in detention. On this subject, psychiatric experts report diametrically opposed conclusions : seriously paranoid for some, depressive, but not psychotic for others. In August 2009, a final report decided by indicating that the suspect is sane and responsible for his actions.
Monday October 4, 2010, Léopold Storme, 23 years old, is in the accused’s box of the Brussels Assize Court. The experts present the accused on the right side, as a “loving, polite, gentle, protective little boy”. On the other hand, as a knife enthusiast, drug user and sex toy collector. Léopold Storme addresses the jurors. “I wanted to publicly proclaim my innocence and I will do it all my life if necessary,” he said. He is sentenced to 26 years in prison, before being released on parole in 2027.
“We do not have the end of the story,” regrets Me Fabian Lauvaux, who was one of Léopold Storme’s lawyers. “We have no answer regarding the motive, the reasons why these homicides occurred. place.”
Guests from “Hour of Crime”
– Dominique Demoulin, journalist at RTL-TVI who followed this affair.
– Me Fabian Lauvaux, lawyer in Charleroi, was one of Léopold Storme’s lawyers.
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