Annick probably killed near home

30 July 2007

SCHAFFEN – The initial analysis of the GSM signal from the phone of murdered 18-year-old Annick Van Uytsel most likely put detectives on the wrong track for several days.

Annick Van Uytsel, a resident of Kaggevinne (Diest), disappeared in the early hours of 28 April after she headed home on bicycle from a party in Schaffen. The last sign of life from her was an sms text message she sent to her boyfriend at about 5 am. The girl’s phone sent out a signal for the last time when Annick’s worried mother called her daughter at about 6.30 am.

Police and volunteers searched for Annick for days, both on the path she would have taken home and near the entrance and exit ramps to the E314 in Halen. The mast in Halen was the last to pick up a signal from the girl’s phone, it seemed at the time. Halen is several kilometres off the route Annick is assumed to have taken home however.

It has now emerged that the GSM operator had been mistaken and that the GSM signal was received by another mast that was indeed in the vicinity of the route Annick took home. So it is likely that the teenager met her murderer on the way home.

There is still a possibility that Annick was the victim of a hit-and-run accident rather than a murder. The motorist may have dumped her body and bicycle after the crime. The chances of this are very slim however. Annick van Uytsel had only suffered head injuries and did not have wounds on any other part of her body. Nor does her bicycle, which was found in Louvain last week, show any signs of a collision.

Subject: Belgian news