Gabby Hessels buried Tuesday

5 July 2007

RIEMST – 18-year-old Gabby Hessels from Riemst, who was raped and then strangled last weekend in Zichen-Zussen-Bolder, will be buried next Tuesday in the church in Zussen. The public prosecution department in Tongeren released the girl’s body on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old man suspected of killing her will be tried for murder.

An autopsy on the body of the murdered girl showed that Gabby Hessels died as a result of internal injuries and strangulation. The examination also showed that the rape was committed with extreme violence.

The perpetrator has submitted a full confession. He told the examining magistrate in Tongeren that he accompanied the girl on her way home and forced her into a maize field a few hundred metres from the home she recently moved into with her boyfriend. There he violently raped her.

The 28-year-old Riemst man later moved the body to a brickyard in Lanaken where he works and using a bulldozer buried the body under a mountain of clay.

The perpetrator frequently visited the café owned by the girl’s parents and was a good friend of Gabby Hessels’ boyfriend. The perpetrator also had a steady relationship. They had recently purchased a plot of land and planned to get married.

Subject: Belgian news