October 21, 2023

2023-10-21 11:32:00

In short, justice was done and the culprits, tried and sentenced, served their sentences.

And following ? Can we say that time makes us forget? That the trial and imprisonment appeased the loved ones?

For Alvarez’s sister whom we find twenty years later, the answer is clearly no. For Dolorès Derumier, justice did not answer everything, questions remained unanswered.

Then, the main assassin, whom the Assize Court had sentenced to life imprisonment, was released following 11 years: We have a vocabulary problem, believes Dolorès. “In the dictionary, “life sentence” means “forever”. To be sentenced to life is not to be released following a few years.”

Finally, the sister learns that since he was released from prison, the murderer is not to be pitied, to say the least.

In the family, Dolores is the last. His mother died of cancer. His sister died of cancer. For Dolores, what they experienced, the waiting, the atrocious truth, the pain, the sorrow, is not foreign.

Exceptional meeting with the sister of a man murdered in the prime of life. After twenty years, the word “forgive” is not one that comes spontaneously.

Back to the case

The Pizza King’s crime made headlines.

Thursday July 12, 2002. In three days, Alvarez Derumier leaves on vacation, in Corfu. The Schaerbeekois is 35 years old. He is a handsome man. Since last year, he has run a well-known grill pizzeria restaurant near Mons, Le Picasso, route de Ath, in Jurbise. The stay in Corfu is offered by his partner in the pizzeria. Alvarez, who put so much effort into this vacation, fully deserved it.

Except that on Monday, he misses the flight to Brussels Airport. His BMW was found near the Anderlecht slaughterhouses. The family is worried. The associate reassures. “Alvarez is in Corfu. I spoke to him by the pool, surrounded by pretty girls.”

In Schaerbeek, Alvarez’s mother doesn’t believe it. She knows her son. He wouldn’t have left without kissing her.

Under the leadership of the (then young) judge Anne Gruwez, the search by the Schaerbeek police and the Zicot Crime Bureau of the Brussels PJ would quickly suspect the associate and his mistress. The investigation considered the financial motive. Alvarez Derumier held ten percent of the shares while the other two, with ninety percent, had everything to say.

The body still had to be found: no corpse? No crime!

Alvarez Derumier would be 57 years old. An age at which we can finally enjoy. ©DR

The pizzeria, the surrounding area: the DVI turned everything over, Alvarez was nowhere to be found. It was finally five months following the disappearance that his remains were exhumed 700 meters from the establishment, in the thickets of the Jurbise golf course.

There was a hole in the middle of the skull, the entrance to a projectile visibly exiting the mouth.

Six shots from a .22 rifle. Suffice to say that we didn’t give him a chance.

Nebulous mobiles

After the trial, Dolores, who had expressed this wish, was exceptionally able to meet the assassins in prison. She was detained in Bruges and he in Arlon. The associate maintained his version according to which Alvarez had made inappropriate gestures towards his mistress’s daughter, a seventeen-year-old girl. This is the version he provided during the trial but the president made it clear that it was not very credible. In the box, even his mistress had another one.

Which she also maintained when Dolores met her in prison. She spoke to him regarding money and in particular, regarding a “brown envelope” that the couple allegedly went to drop off in France, with a notary, two days following killing Alvarez. “She told me regarding a notary in Toulon or Toulouse.”

In January 2005, the Hainaut Assize Court sentenced the main murderer to life imprisonment. For her part, she received 12 years of criminal imprisonment. But while they had been detained since November 2002, she requested his parole in 2007 – two years following the trial – and he, who was sentenced to life, was released on November 3, 2013, eight years following the trial. Learning regarding it, Alvarez’s loved ones were upset. His sister Dolores still is.

“My brother Alvarez”

There is no doubt that the murder was planned, premeditated. Three days before, they had bought boots from Brico de Ghlin, boots they would need to drag the body through the woods, as well as gloves and blood-washing product from Monsieur Propre.

For Dolores, “hate is useless. (…). I am not that type of woman. As for forgiving, no. But if I have resentment today, it is especially towards justice . After all, it was she who opened the prison doors to them, following eleven years.”

His brother whom they killed was kindness made man. “Alvarez was affectionate, very attached to his family, faithful in friendship, attentive, respectful, my brother had a good heart. He was always ready to be of service. He did not accept betrayal and did not see evil. more, and that’s what killed him.”

Alvarez Derumier would be 57 years old. An age at which we can finally enjoy.

From cell to villa

The main murderer served part of the sentence in Mons, the remainder in Arlon. In the 1990s, he stayed in the Congo. There were rumors that he got into trouble there and had to return to Belgium. Married, he lived in Woluwe for a while. His wife divorced in 2000. He already had a relationship with this woman, fifteen years younger, whom he would, in 2002, lead into crime.

Released from prison, the assassin settled as far away from Hainaut as possible. He is now 83 years old and lives in an absolutely charming corner of our Ardennes, as Dolorès Derumier learned. This is still a point that annoys her. “We were civil parties, she recalls. He was also ordered to compensate us financially. But for seven years, he did not pay a euro. He had no money, he said. Except that when he asked to go out and it was necessary to show that he was making an effort, he suddenly paid 25 euros for a few months. He said he was penniless? And I learned that he lived a beautiful villa? It’s logical that I want to understand.”

Dolorès makes the link with this envelope that the accomplice she met in prison spoke to her regarding, this envelope that we would have left with a notary in France, two days following the murder. And all that, for her, is definitely not clear.

Too many questions, too many gray areas prevent him from turning the page today. If justice had answered everything. If the convicts hadn’t been released so soon. So yes, appeasement would have come. But there, in these conditions, it’s no.

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