The Brabant Killers (Band of Nivelles/Nijvel)

[RookieWebsleuth2024]

Earlier this year, in June 2024, Belgian police finally closed the mysterious case of the Brabant Killers. No arrests were made, everyone is still clueless about the identity and motives behind those senseless killings that took place in Belgium in the early to mid-1980s. I propose we have a retrospective here of the case, the gazillions of mistakes that were made by police, and the victims.

Belgium’s ‘Crazy Killers’ mystery goes unsolved after police close file

Investigation that lasted decades ends with no convictions for 1982-85 rampage that took lives of 28 people

www.theguardian.com

 

[dotr]

Jan. 28 2025

Cold Case No More? New Lead In Belgian Murder Mystery

www.barrons.com

''A decades-old probe into a murderous gang rampage that mystified Belgium could be opened again to chase an unexplored lead, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The cold case known as the "Crazy Killers of Brabant" revolves around two waves of deadly supermarket robberies carried out between 1982 and 1985, killing 28 people including children.''

''Jun 5, 2018 #eyeworks
November 9th, 1985, a gang carried out a bloody raid on the Delhaize Supermarket in Aalst, Belgium. The so-called Brabant Killers brutally murdered eight innocent people, among whom were Gilbert, Thérèse and Rebecca Van de Steen. Nine-year old David Van de Steen, although critically injured, survived the shooting. His parents and sister were among the final victims of the infamous gang. David was now an orphan and his grandparents took on the heart-wrenching task of trying to give him a new perspective on life and help him build a future. Grandfather Albert, fought for over 25 years to bring the killers to justice. To this day, the killers who murdered 28 people between 1982 and 1985 have not been identified. It is the biggest scandal in the history of Belgian justice.''

 

[dotr]

January 28, 2025 rbbm

New lead emerges in notorious cold case mass murder mystery in Belgium

The cold case known as the "Crazy Killers of Brabant" revolves around decades-old supermarket robberies that killed 28 people in Belgium.

www.cbsnews.com

''The cold case known as the "Crazy Killers of Brabant" revolves around two waves of deadly supermarket robberies carried out between 1982 and 1985, killing 28 people including children.
The suspects were reportedly three men who covered themselves in face paint during the raids and became known for their ruthless attacks, the BBC reported. Some of the victims were tortured before being killed.
The gang's members were dubbed the "The Giant," "The Killer" and "The Old Man," the BBC reported.
Theories piled up over the years to explain the crime spree -- with the sums involved tiny, and money an unlikely motive.''

File picture (dated Sept. 27, 1885) showing the "Delhaize" supermarket in Overijse after a hold up by the "Brabant Killers" gang. HERWIG VERGULT/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images

Photo 'vital lead' in hunt for Belgium's supermarket killers

The photo has been released of a man believed to have been part of the "Crazy Brabant Killers".

www.bbc.com

The handout picture shows a man holding a weapon in a forest
Authorities have released a new picture of a man which could be key to solving one of Belgium's most notorious crimes.

 

[dotr]

2020

Is this Belgium's 'Crazy Brabant killer' who killed in supermarkets?

Known as the 'Crazy Brabant Killers', the assailants killed 28 shoppers and wounded hundreds more in attacks on supermarket car parks in the Brussels area between 1982 and 1985.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Pictured: Sketches of the 10 men wanted for a series of slayings in Brussels between 1982 and 1985

 

[Marie A]

This is a fascinating group of cases.

Here’s a good timeline of the group:

Brabant killers - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Certainly some of these perps are still alive to answer for these despicable murders.
They seem like a gang of murderous thugs - but hard to imagine a group wreaking such havoc yet nobody talking.
Praying that the new old lead of the license plate will shed some light on this case.
With so many culprits multiple people know something.
The families of those who were tortured and slain deserve answers.

 

[RookieWebsleuth2024]

Retired police officers in Belgium traditionally revisit this case, as well as the theft of one of the panels of the Altar of Ghent. Some tend to associate several cold cases together which leads nowhere.

I'm afraid the citation below is in Dutch.

Tweede oud-rechercheur opgepakt in onderzoek naar Bende van Nijvel

De ex-rijkswachter heeft mogelijk het jarenlange onderzoek naar de moorddadige bende in België gemanipuleerd.

nos.nl

 

[dotr]

Retired police officers in Belgium traditionally revisit this case, as well as the theft of one of the panels of the Altar of Ghent. Some tend to associate several cold cases together which leads nowhere.

I'm afraid the citation below is in Dutch.

Tweede oud-rechercheur opgepakt in onderzoek naar Bende van Nijvel

De ex-rijkswachter heeft mogelijk het jarenlange onderzoek naar de moorddadige bende in België gemanipuleerd.

nos.nl

Google translate worked fine..

Tweede oud-rechercheur opgepakt in onderzoek naar Bende van Nijvel

De ex-rijkswachter heeft mogelijk het jarenlange onderzoek naar de moorddadige bende in België gemanipuleerd.

nos.nl

 

[RookieWebsleuth2024]

Lots of retired police officers have been doing this for years.

 

[RookieWebsleuth2024]

This is a fascinating group of cases.

Here’s a good timeline of the group:

Brabant killers - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Certainly some of these perps are still alive to answer for these despicable murders.
They seem like a gang of murderous thugs - but hard to imagine a group wreaking such havoc yet nobody talking.
Praying that the new old lead of the license plate will shed some light on this case.
With so many culprits multiple people know something.
The families of those who were tortured and slain deserve answers.

I believe it is commonly believed that one of them was killed after a shootout with the police during their final confrontation, his friends buried him secretly somewhere, and that's when they dismantled the group.

I seem to remember a profiler who once argued that certain serial killers are able to stop their killing spree if they ever come too close to getting arrested and quoted the Zodiac Killer who stopped killing and only sent threatening letters to the police after he almost got caught after his last murder. So, the Band of Nijvel remaining members may have been keeping a low profile for years.

Regarding the Band of Nijvel, I personally believe it was mostly police incompetence that led to their getting away with all those murders. Belgian police is famous for it.

 

[anijs6]

New additional investigation into Brabant Killers: focus on French track after years of refusal

The chamber of indictment (KI) in Mons has again ordered additional investigative acts in the investigation into the Brabant Killers. This is reported by RBTF and the local channel TV Lux, and the news is confirmed by the federal prosecutor's office. The investigators must now determine whether two now deceased gangsters from northern France, brothers Xavier and Thierry Sliman, were involved in the Killers' crimes.

Opnieuw extra onderzoek naar Bende van Nijvel: focus op Franse piste na jarenlange weigering

 

[dotr]

Brabant Killers: Can Belgium’s biggest cold case finally be solved?

"I always said he had a northern French accent, that he wasn't Belgian."

www.brusselstimes.com

19 August 2025 lengthy article.

''Breakthrough?​

However, since April, another lead was also requested to be investigated concerning two French gangster brothers, Thierry and Xavier Sliman.

Hailing from northern France, they were known criminals who had committed several robberies in their area during the Brabant Killings period. They had already appeared on the police’s radar in one of the many theories at the time.

Yet, this lead was not properly followed up at the time, according to former police officer Jean-Pierre Adam, who has already written two books on this specific trail. He believes there are several indications that they may have been the Brabant Killers, even if the two have since both died.

For example, when Adam was investigating the murder of a restaurant owner in 2000, he found a wanted notice in Xavier Sliman's file at the French court for the robbery of arms dealer Dekaise in Wavre, one of the earlier crimes allegedly committed by the gang in 1983.''

Xavier and Thierry Sliman
''Sliman was said to resemble the description of the suspect in the wanted notice, but this information was never passed on to the Belgian investigators.''

 

[Carovb5]

“Exhumation ordered of the Sliman brothers' mother and reopening of the investigation” for DNA.
Nieuwe wending in de zaak van de Bende van Nijvel: justitie beveelt de opgraving van de moeder van de broers Sliman en heropent het onderzoek

 

[Rikissa]

For those not fluent in Flemish (a language no available on Google translate), here's two articles about the case from French-language sites, translated into English with Google Translate, the links takes you to the translated pages.

Rebondissement dans l’affaire des tueries du Brabant : la justice ordonne l’exhumation de la mère des frères Sliman et relance l’enquête

La piste française des Tueurs du Brabant connaît un tournant décisif : la Cour d’appel de Mons ordonne l’exhumation de la mère des frères Sliman afin de comparer son ADN aux traces biologiques retrouvées dans le dossier. Une décision qui relance spectaculairement l’enquête, alors que les...

www-rtl-be.translate.goog

Belgique: Mystère des tueurs du Brabant: deux frères seront exhumés

La justice va explorer une piste française pour tenter de résoudre la plus grande énigme criminelle du pays.

www-lematin-ch.translate.goog

 

[Carovb5]

For those not fluent in Flemish (a language no available on Google translate), here's two articles about the case from French-language sites, translated into English with Google Translate, the links takes you to the translated pages.

Rebondissement dans l’affaire des tueries du Brabant : la justice ordonne l’exhumation de la mère des frères Sliman et relance l’enquête

La piste française des Tueurs du Brabant connaît un tournant décisif : la Cour d’appel de Mons ordonne l’exhumation de la mère des frères Sliman afin de comparer son ADN aux traces biologiques retrouvées dans le dossier. Une décision qui relance spectaculairement l’enquête, alors que les...

www-rtl-be.translate.goog

Belgique: Mystère des tueurs du Brabant: deux frères seront exhumés

La justice va explorer une piste française pour tenter de résoudre la plus grande énigme criminelle du pays.

www-lematin-ch.translate.goog

Flemish = Dutch

Choose ‘Dutch’ or ‘Nederlands’ in Google translate or any orher translator no need to search for a French one.

(Funny extra info on languages in Belgium: your link (RTL) in French is actually ‘Waals’ (Walloon) instead of French, if you call the dutch ‘Flemish).

 

[Rikissa]

Flemish = Dutch

Choose ‘Dutch’ or ‘Nederlands’ in Google translate or any orher translator no need to search for a French one.

(Funny extra info on languages in Belgium: your link (RTL) in French is actually ‘Waals’ (Walloon) instead of French, if you call the dutch ‘Flemish).

I'm well aware that Flemish is the variant of Dutch spoken in Belgium (I have had a Flemish penpal), but when I tried to translate the link in post #12 and having chosen Dutch the translation program I use couldn't translate it into English.

If I'm not mistaken, when posting articles in other languages than English, the links are to be to a translated version of the articles. At least I got a reminder once when I had forgotten to post a translated link.

As for using "French" insted of 'Waals' and 'suisse romand', well, this is not a language forum, and I would guess most members here are more familiar with seeing the words 'French language' than trying figure out what languages 'Waals' and 'suisse romand' are.

 

[dotr]

Jun 5, 2018 #eyeworks
'November 9th, 1985, a gang carried out a bloody raid on the Delhaize Supermarket in Aalst, Belgium. The so-called Brabant Killers brutally murdered eight innocent people, among whom were Gilbert, Thérèse and Rebecca Van de Steen. Nine-year old David Van de Steen, although critically injured, survived the shooting. His parents and sister were among the final victims of the infamous gang. David was now an orphan and his grandparents took on the heart-wrenching task of trying to give him a new perspective on life and help him build a future. Grandfather Albert, fought for over 25 years to bring the killers to justice. To this day, the killers who murdered 28 people between 1982 and 1985 have not been identified. It is the biggest scandal in the history of Belgian justice.'

 

[Carovb5]

I'm well aware that Flemish is the variant of Dutch spoken in Belgium (I have had a Flemish penpal), but when I tried to translate the link in post #12 and having chosen Dutch the translation program I use couldn't translate it into English.

If I'm not mistaken, when posting articles in other languages than English, the links are to be to a translated version of the articles. At least I got a reminder once when I had forgotten to post a translated link.

As for using "French" insted of 'Waals' and 'suisse romand', well, this is not a language forum, and I would guess most members here are more familiar with seeing the words 'French language' than trying figure out what languages 'Waals' and 'suisse romand' are.

I can recommend Google for translating Dutch/Flemish. Tried it with the link from post 12 for you.

No language forum but i’d like to think helping others in succesfull or quick translating and understanding languages they’re confronted with while sleuthing a case is helpfull & being a kind co-sleuther. Not every site or article is translated in French. The way Belgium “works” is unnecessarily complicated and that doesn’t help while sleuthing.
I’m sorry if that bothered you.

 

[Rikissa]

I can recommend Google for translating Dutch/Flemish. Tried it with the link from post 12 for you.

No language forum but i’d like to think helping others in succesfull or quick translating and understanding languages they’re confronted with while sleuthing a case is helpfull & being a kind co-sleuther. Not every site or article is translated in French. The way Belgium “works” is unnecessarily complicated and that doesn’t help while sleuthing.
I’m sorry if that bothered you.

I do use Google translate, and the link in post #12 doesn't translate, not on my surfpad (it comes out untranslated), nor on my computer, this is the result there.

Nieuwe wending in de zaak van de Bende van Nijvel: justitie beveelt de opgraving van de moeder van de broers Sliman en heropent het onderzoek

It seems as Google Translate doesn't always work, it doesn't translate Dutch on a computer set in Swedish, neither into Swedish, nor into English. So, please post a translation of the article in post #14 in English. Everybody here should be able to read the links posted here, and the best way to do it, is when the original poster of the link uses a translation programme before posting an article.

 

[Ssschu]

Here are a few snippets of the article that I find shocking. Why didn't the police follow these leads, especially the car registration number?!?!

"On Nov. 9, 1985, eight people were killed during an attack on a Delhaize grocery store in the city of Aalst, per the BBC.

Two brothers, then ages 7 and 10, later said they saw six men in dark clothing fleeing the scene, and the boys wrote down a car’s registration number in a notebook as part of a childhood hobby. CBS News, citing AFP, reported that the notebook was logged in the case file but the lead was not pursued for decades and the brothers were never questioned."

"In 2019, a retired police officer was charged with allegedly dumping weapons and ammunition linked to the case in a canal in 1986, but he was never convicted, according to The Guardian."

"In 2017, The Guardian reported that the brother of a former Belgian policeman, Christiaan Bonkoffsky, had confessed two years earlier to being "the Giant." Patricia Finne, whose father was among the 28 people killed, told the outlet that the disclosure was "the first serious revelation in 30 years."

"CBS News, citing AFP, reported that an appeals court in Mons later ordered investigators to hear two additional witnesses, including the brothers who recorded the license plate number before the Aalst attack.

“We don’t want to give up,” said Kristiaan Vandenbussche, a lawyer representing families of the victims, according to the outlet."

Trio Wore Masks and Face Paint — Then Opened Fire in Grocery Stores, Killing 28 People, Including Children

Between 1982 and 1985, a masked trio killed 28 people — including children — in a series of grocery store attacks across Belgium. Known as the Brabant Killers, the men were never identified, and the case was formally closed decades later without answers.

people.com