No headway in investigation

20 March 2007

BRUSSELS – Investigators have not been able to find any evidence so far that Montenegrin national Smailj Tulja lived in or visited the area of Bergen in 1996-1997, when the Bergen serial killer was active.

All five women who fell into the serial killer’s hands disappeared from the neighbourhood around Bergen station.

The police went through the area with photos of the suspect but without any results. Nor have police received any serious tips.

Police in Podgorica, Montenegro arrested 67-year-old Smailj Tulja a month ago on suspicion of the murder of a woman in New York in 1990.

The US FBI thought the manner in which the woman had been cut up into pieces resembled the modus operandi of the “butcher of Bergen.” Their investigation also showed that Tulja lived in the area of Verviers in 1995.

When news of the arrest was leaked a month ago there were high hopes for a breakthrough in the case of the “butcher of Bergen.”

But the failure to find any evidence so far has put a damper on those hopes.

“There is no point in sending investigators to Montenegro if we have nothing concrete with which to confront him,” says public prosecutor Claude Michaux. “Especially since Tulja continues to deny everything, including the murder in New York.”

Subject: Belgian news