Belgian man arrested on suspicion of murdering his companion in 1994 after garden excavation turns up human remains

A 78-year-old Belgian man was arrested on suspicion of murdering his companion 30 years ago after excavation work turned up human remains in a garden, prosecutors said. The suspect, named only as Hans D., was arrested this week, charged, and fitted with an electronic tracking bracelet.

He was set to appear Friday in court in the Belgian city of Ghent for a decision on the period and conditions of his detention.

The cold case was reopened when the remains were discovered last Saturday, as the owner of a home in Sint-Martens-Latem, a village just southwest of Ghent, had workers dig up his garden.

Police rapidly deduced from clues found that the body could be that of a woman, a neighbor who had disappeared in 1994 at age 48 and who had been the companion of the suspect.

Belgian newspaper De Standaard reported that Hans D. had confessed to burying her but had not admitted to killing her.

The man's lawyer, Ashley Bicx, told another newspaper, Het Nieuwsblad, that his client was "fully cooperating" with the investigation.

The woman — identified by the Brussels Times as Annie De Poortere — disappeared on November 12, 1994. Five years later, after the case went cold, she was declared "absent" by a court in Ghent, the outlet reported.

Hans D., a tradesman in the village, was not under suspicion at the time.

He had told a television reporter in an interview in 1999 that his companion had suddenly gone missing one evening while he was out shopping at a supermarket and then off watching a football game, De Standaard reported.

Last year, Interpol launched a web page where police share previously confidential information about unsolved cases in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.

Interpol said in November that about two dozen women found dead in recent decades in those three countries have been identified.

In:
• Belgium
• Crime