Belgium - Balen - Heidi De Schepper - 26yo- missing since 2010, only found out she’s missing in 2024

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What I cannot get out of my head - if Nick Geys had confessed to murdering Heidi way back in 2011, he would have been convicted for 2 murders there and then. He would have been given two prison sentences and these would have run concurrently. At the same time. So chances are, he would have been a free man by now, or soon.
Instead, what will probably happen, if he gets convicted (which I expect) he will be back in prison and serve double time. For the same crimes. All of his own doing.

If I were his lawyer, I'd consider advising him to confess every other possible crime now and be done with.
 
Crucial day in search for Heidi De Schepper body: investigators search last piece of ground

The search for the body of Heidi De Schepper is about to restart. The Civil Protection and Missing Persons Unit has been searching for the body of murdered Heidi De Schepper in the Poeierstraat in Balen since last Friday. Today, the last piece of ground in the demarcated area is being searched. If there is another breakthrough, it will follow in the next few hours.

Cruciale dag in zoektocht naar lichaam Heidi De Schepper: speurders doorzoeken laatste stukje grond
 
anijs6 said:
Such an odd story. The fact that her ID card was never renewed, she would also have to declare her taxes, and that was probably never done (or done for her). Surely that should set off alarm bells at the municipality and the government, but didn't? Also, her child was 7 at the time of the disappearance, it must have experienced the disappearance relatively consciously, right? I wonder what was said to that child. Because the school also appeared to be unaware of the disappearance or the mother not being in the picture, did the child never mention it, or why did the school still get the Heidi's contact information? So many questions…
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Absolutely, this case raises so many unanswered questions. The lack of official records updating, tax filings, and municipal alerts is baffling. You’d think at some point, an expired ID or unfiled taxes would trigger an investigation. And the child's situation is particularly puzzling—how was the disappearance explained, and why didn’t the school notice anything unusual? It’s strange that her contact info remained valid despite her absence. Hopefully, more details come to light to fill in these gaps.
 
Body of Heidi De Schepper again not found: search to resume on Monday

The body of Heidi De Schepper in Balen has not yet been found, the public prosecutor's office confirmed to our editors. The Civil Protection and Missing Persons Unit has been searching for the body of the murdered woman since last Friday. A search was also carried out today, without result. ‘The search will be resumed on Monday in the same area and with the same digging methods.’

Lichaam van Heidi De Schepper opnieuw niet gevonden: zoektocht wordt maandag hervat
 
https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20250310_92437478

Detectives and civil protection together with the Missing Persons Unit are once again searching for the body of murdered Heidi De Schepper. Friday already promised to be a crucial day, but it failed to yield anything sofar. This morning, the search resumes and investigators continue to dig the same search zone.

BBM


Fingers crossed!
 
I wonder if they are looking in the right place. The parents of Glenn, the victim in the axe murder (and thus Nick G.'s best friend), stated the following in this article:

And there is more, Ingrid explains. ‘In November 2010 (around that time Heidi disappeared) Nick once said to me: ‘I have already thrown someone into the canal once.’ And according to my sister, he said the same to my niece. But Nick was such a blowhard, he liked to brag, a showman first class. You don't think any further about it then. It was also unknown at the time that a Heidi from Balen had gone missing. If we had known that, we could have raised the alarm and Glenn might not have been killed.
 
Still no trace of body of Heidi De Schepper after nine days of search: search resumes Wednesday

Although Virtual Reality Glasses were used during last week's interrogation of the suspects and VITO, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research in Mol, was also called in to supply drone and satellite images, no results are forthcoming for the time being. Earlier this week, the public prosecutor announced that the investigators are doing everything in their power to find Heidi, which means that in some places they are now digging deeper. The search will resume on Wednesday.

Na negen dagen zoeken nog steeds geen spoor van lichaam Heidi De Schepper: zoekactie woensdag hervat
 
Wat als het lichaam van Heidi De Schepper nooit wordt gevonden? “Bij twijfel moet een rechter de verdachte vrijspreken”

What if Heidi De Schepper's body is never found? ‘When in doubt, a judge should acquit the accused’

The Heidi case. After a week-and-a-half of digging in the Heidi De Schepper case, everything was done today to find her body. But just like the days before, the search ended without success. What would be the consequences for the murder case if they failed to find her body? And what if the suspects retract their confession? We put it to former (investigating) judge and president of the court of assizes Edwin van Fraechem (84).

BBM

The rest of the interview is subscription only, but I have been wondering about this question.
What if Heidi's remains are never found?
The perpetrator knows where he buried (or left) her remains.
If there is no other proof after all these years, and the remains are not found in the location that he indicated, then there is no proof that what he confessed is in fact true. It is possible that he made it all up, some people will do that.
Next, the perp retracts his confession, as former judge Edwin van Fraechem mentions, and legally, the investigation is left with next to nothing to go on.

Ouch! 😲 Keep digging!
 
Zoekactie naar lichaam Heidi De Schepper in Balen wordt stopgezet, onderzoek gaat door

Search for Heidi De Schepper's body in Balen halted, investigation continues

The search for the body of Heidi De Schepper in Balen is being called off. This was reported by the Antwerp public prosecutor's office. The judicial investigation continues under the direction of the examining magistrate. De Schepper disappeared 15 years ago. She was presumably murdered, 2 suspects have confessed.

After 12 days of intensive searching by the different services involved (DVI, civil protection, FGP, missing persons cell, PZ Balen-Dessel-Mol) in the Poeierstraat in Balen, it was decided today to stop the search for the body of Heidi De Schepper. This was reported by the Antwerp public prosecutor's office.

The judicial investigation will continue under the direction of the examining magistrate. At this stage of the investigation, the public prosecutor's office will not give further explanations.


BBM

:(
 
I wonder when or if there will be further updates?

What is the process for prosecution since 2 people have confessed (and yet no evidence of her body has been found)?
 
Last edited:
vls12345 said:
I wonder when or if there will be further updates?
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(source, 3d ago): "The judicial investigation continues under the direction of the investigating judge. At this stage of the investigation, the public prosecutor's office will not provide further explanations."
vls12345 said:
What is the process for prosecution since 2 people have confessed (and yet no evidence of her body has been found)?
Click to expand...
(source, 13d ago): But what if the two retract their confessions before the case comes before the assize court? ‘You have to work quickly and cleverly as an investigating judge,’ says Van Fraechem. ‘Those first statements are hugely important, you have to be able to test them separately. So you also have to immediately separate the suspects from each other so that they no longer speak or see each other. And then it's a question of repetition. Do they want to go back to the cell to sleep after a long interrogation? OK, no problem. But the day after, you ask the same things and make them reaffirm them. That way it becomes difficult to retract their confession, you risk losing credibility with a jury.’

In this case, you do have two suspects indicating the specific location. Isn't there then a chance that they made a false statement? ‘It can never be ruled out, but that chance seems enormously small to me,’ says Van Fraechem. ‘There is more to be gained in this situation by cooperating with the investigation. And even without a corpse you can be convicted in the assize court, there are plenty of examples of that.’
 
New search for body of murdered Heidi De Schepper: drones deployed

The public prosecutor's office has restarted the search for the body of murdered Heidi De Schepper in the Poeierstraat in Balen. The past few weeks yielded nothing. ‘There is now a search in a location that has not been investigated before,’ said Kristof Aerts of the public prosecutor's office in Antwerp.
[...]
Whether the search will be based on new statements, the prosecutor's office could not say or confirm. 'There are sufficient elements to resume the search at a location not previously looked at'.

Opnieuw zoekactie naar lichaam van vermoorde Heidi De Schepper: drones ingezet
 
What is the area like where they are searching? Is it all woodland, or is there an open area too?
Those trees that we see in the pictures ~ almost always the same picture ~ where they there when the remains of Heidi were buried? Some trees appear to have been present 15 years ago, but the others did they grow afterwards? And when? It does not look like a well-kept woodland to my eyes.

I had an interesting conversation with GROK. I learned that it is possible that trees and vegetation take nutrients from remains that are buried in a spot, but this impact is not strong and it does not last. Forensic botanists and ecologists have studied this phenomenon. Research shows that in the first few years after burial, the vegetation over such a spot may stand out- think grass that is greener or shrubs that grow a little more exuberantly due to the extra nutrients.

GROK: it is theoretically possible for a tree to grow slightly different above a hidden body, but in the real world it is too subtle and too dependent on circumstances to be a reliable detection method. Crime investigations lean much more on ground radar, scent dogs or chemical soil tests than on the appearance of a tree. It remains an intriguing idea, but not a silver bullet for detectives!
 
ZaZara said:
What is the area like where they are searching? Is it all woodland, or is there an open area too?
Those trees that we see in the pictures ~ almost always the same picture ~ where they there when the remains of Heidi were buried? Some trees appear to have been present 15 years ago, but the others did they grow afterwards? And when? It does not look like a well-kept woodland to my eyes.

I had an interesting conversation with GROK. I learned that it is possible that trees and vegetation take nutrients from remains that are buried in a spot, but this impact is not strong and it does not last. Forensic botanists and ecologists have studied this phenomenon. Research shows that in the first few years after burial, the vegetation over such a spot may stand out- think grass that is greener or shrubs that grow a little more exuberantly due to the extra nutrients.

GROK: it is theoretically possible for a tree to grow slightly different above a hidden body, but in the real world it is too subtle and too dependent on circumstances to be a reliable detection method. Crime investigations lean much more on ground radar, scent dogs or chemical soil tests than on the appearance of a tree. It remains an intriguing idea, but not a silver bullet for detectives!
Click to expand...
If you google “bedrijventerrein Balen” you get pictures (&google maps) of the location.

The last articles are about this location: “Poeierstraat Balen”

I posted a “before” and “after” of the searchlocation somewhere in this thread: the year she vanished vs now.
 
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