Belgium Remembers Loubna Benaïssa: 25 Years Since Discovery of Missing Child’s Body

Loubna Benaïssa had gone shopping with her mother and sister Nabila on Tuesday, August 5, 1992. Back home, on Rue Gray in Ixelles, her mother noticed that she had forgotten the yogurt and asked her to go back to the supermarket on Rue Goffart to get it. Loubna never returned home. Loubna’s family, of Moroccan origin, went to the police station to report her disappearance. But no action was taken on their statement and no investigation was opened.

However, two pedophiles registered with the police were on the path taken by Loubna (the Q8 service station located at the intersection of Rue Wéry and Avenue de la Couronne). These were Michel Nihoul and Patrick Derochette, the son of the owner of the service station. Questioned, the two provided alibis that the police did not deem necessary to verify. The first said he was in Algeria at the time of the events, and the second, Patrick Derochette, at a lunch with his brother.

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Four years later, in 1996, the Dutroux affair broke out, leading the parents of several child victims of sexual violence to come together to demonstrate. A white march in which Loubna’s family participated, seizing the opportunity to launch an appeal to the authorities to open an investigation to find their daughter. This cry of distress was heard by Michel Bourlet, the King’s Prosecutor in Neufchâteau, who entrusted the investigation to the Brussels gendarmerie. It was there that the agents discovered that Patrick Derochette’s alibi had not been verified and that he had finished his lunch with his brother before Loubna passed by the service station.

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The gendarmes decided to search the service station again, this time with a sniffer dog. They found a metal trunk containing the body of a child, that of Loubna Benaïssa. After analysis, the agents confirmed that she had suffered sexual violence. Patrick Derochette, 33, was then placed in detention, but will not be convicted. According to a psychiatric assessment, he suffered from mental disorders and could not be held responsible for his actions. Instead of prison, he was therefore interned in August 1999 in an establishment near Tournai, where he died in December 2016 at the age of 52. The discovery of Loubna’s body sparked strong tensions and a series of demonstrations in the streets of Ixelles. The residents had denounced the poor conduct of the investigation.

Loubna rests in peace in Tangier. "Thousands of people attended the funeral. The day before, I had dinner with the Benaïssa family who were very serene. I had a police escort, because many people wanted to take revenge and as I was the mayor, I was responsible. On the day of the burial, the father Benaïssa held my arm at the head of the procession. It was a lesson in dignity," recalls Charles Picqué, the former mayor of Ixelles.