She unsuspectingly went jogging, but would never return home: 20 years ago, Ingrid (32) was brutally murdered by a 16-year-old fisherman

Ascension Day 2004. Ingrid Van Regenmortel, mother of three young children, stayed away from her running training for a very long time that evening. So long that her husband summoned his father-in-law and they started searching together and eventually notified the police. It wasn’t until dawn that a sniffer dog started barking. He had picked up her trail. A little later they found Ingrid’s body. Hidden under the bushes, upper body exposed. She had been killed violently. (Read more below the photo)

“Suddenly happiness is ripped away from your life,” says her husband Alain Bruynkens, who was suddenly on his own with four children: Jarryd (14), from his previous marriage, and Cato (7), Ilka (3) and Abby (9 months) from Ingrid. The children have now found their way in life and do not want to testify. One looks exactly like her mother, Alain tells us. He tells his story in the program True crime Belgium: teenage killerwhich will be broadcast on Streamz on Wednesday and in which high-profile murder cases are revived.

READ ALSO. After the senseless murder of his wife, Alain is left with four children

Antwerp investigating judge Karel Van Cauwenberghe remembers well that he was called to Viersel that morning in May. It promised to be a difficult investigation. A remote place, no witnesses, no tracks.

Alain, who was first questioned as a possible suspect, perhaps remembered something that could be useful: a young fisherman sitting by the canal. He pretended that his nose was bleeding when the distraught man asked him around midnight if he had happened to see his wife. That young man never looked at him, he noticed. (Read more below the photo)

“Stop, wait a minute”

That fisherman was Björn Moons, a sturdy guy with a short fuse. He was still staring at his float the morning after the incident. “When I looked him in the eye for the first time, I saw ‘evil’,” says an investigator from the time.

Zero emotions, and that is also evident from the interrogation. In his first statement, Moons told the facts as if it were the most normal thing in the world. “It was already getting dark when that jogger passed by. All alone on the deserted towpath. I watched her for a moment. A few minutes later she passed again. Suddenly, in a flash, the urge came to me to sexually assault that woman. I jumped on my bike and caught up with her.”

“Stop, wait es ephes”, he shouted to her as he dropped his bicycle on the edge of the grass. “I wanted to hold her by the shoulder, but she resisted. I grabbed her by the throat,” he told investigators. In an attempt to scare him, Ingrid shouted, “Be careful, my husband is coming to pick me up.” She also stomped hard on his shins. When he felt pain, he became furious. “I now squeezed as hard as I could with both hands for more than two minutes.”

Potted

To make sure she was dead, he gave her five more punches in the face, aiming for the underside of the nose. “If you hit someone well in that spot, a bone in the brain will crack,” the former skinhead had once read somewhere. He grabbed the body by the ankles and dragged it into the bushes. “There, in the bushes, I tore her bra and dabbed her breasts. Oh yes, right, first I stood with my foot on her neck for a while. Afterwards I continued fishing,” he continued without blinking.

Court psychiatrist Dillen talked about an extreme lack of empathy. A police inspector had asked Moons after the facts if he had any regrets. His answer was telling: “Yes. Because I have now lost my freedom. I can no longer drink pints and stay in my nest until 11 o’clock. And people will always look at me in a dirty way.” (Read more below the photo)

‘The empty fisherman’ was handed over by the juvenile judge during the investigation and appeared before the Antwerp assize court in 2007. There too he was portrayed as a real psychopath, calculated and cunning. It also came to light that as a child he was already an untameable aggressive person. He destroyed his sister’s toys, tore up nine schools, headbutted teachers or threw them hard against the wall.

READ ALSO. Björn Moons guilty across the board

Ingrid was not his first victim, by the way. He had previously attempted rape at the Fort in Kessel, where he went fishing. He had tried to drag a woman off her moped. She had filed a complaint, but no action was taken. “A well-known story,” says Ingrid’s widower. “Just look at Julie Van Espen. That perpetrator should also have been in prison when he killed the girl. They clearly don’t learn from their mistakes here.” (Read more below the photo)

Moons, now 36 years old, ultimately received 30 years in prison and not a life sentence given his young age. He has now been imprisoned for 20 years. “He has asked to be released every year since he became eligible for parole. With the exception of last year. At these sessions we always sit face to face: he, I and Ingrid’s parents. And every time we oppose his release. To protect society and my daughters, because that man will strike again.”

‘True crime Belgium: teenage killer’ can be seen on Streamz from May 8