Mother officially arrested

1 March 2007

BRUSSELS – Geneviève Lhermitte, the mother who presumably killed her five children on Wednesday afternoon in Nijvel, has been officially arrested on suspicion of murder. This took place after the woman was questioned in the hospital, the public prosecution department in Nijvel reported during a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

The woman reportedly did not plan the crime long in advance, but did carry out the killings methodically. She called each of the children into another room one by one and stabbed them to death there before trying to take her own life.

In a joint statement, the management and staff of the Institute Saint-Michel and the Collège Sainte-Gertrude, where the children attended school, and the student guidance centre in Nijvel have informed the press that they have no time to answer any more questions from reporters at the moment because they “are much too busy with their counselling and educational duties.”

Subject: Belgian news