8. Ulie Lejeune, Melissa Russo, An Marchal, Eerje Lamrecks, Sabine Dardenne and Laetitia Delhez
This case of missing children involved girls between the ages of 8-19, who were all kidnapped in the course of a year 1995-1996. They were held, tortured and abused by the Belgian Marc Dutroux, who is serving a life sentence. His wife Michelle Martin is now in a convent after serving 16 years of a 30-year sentence. Only Dardenne and Delhez survived. Dutroux was a career criminal who made a living by selling stolen cars and kidnapping young girls and selling them for prostitution or child pornography in his native Belgium. Dutroux kidnapped girls and held them in a specially constructed prison beneath his home. Despite numerous tips including a letter from Dutroux’s own mother, police were slow to make the connection and arrest him. At the time of his arrest, two girls were found chained in the basement dungeon. The remains of several others not so lucky were also uncovered.
