Antwerp public prosecutor links 1990s murder to two rapes through DNA evidence

22 October 2025

The Antwerp public prosecutor’s office and the investigating judge have issued a wanted notice in connection with the 1993 murder of 17-year-old Tania Van Kerkhoven, which has now been linked through DNA analysis to two rapes committed around the same time.

The murder investigation, which had long gone cold, was reopened last year using new forensic techniques and DNA testing. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the results indicate that the same perpetrator was responsible for two rapes committed in 1992 and 1993. Investigators also note a strikingly similar modus operandi across all three crimes. In each case, the attacker targeted young women, abducting them under threat of violence and often taking them to remote areas such as parks or woods.

Tania Van Kerkhoven

Tania Van Kerkhoven disappeared on the night of 16 to 17 July 1993 after leaving a party in Wommelgem. She had dropped off her boyfriend in Deurne and was on her way home to Edegem, but her moped was later found neatly parked in Deurne. Her body was discovered the next morning in Brilschanspark in Berchem, around ten kilometres away, with multiple stab wounds. The key to her moped was still in her pocket. Witnesses reported hearing a scream near the moped between 2.30 and 3 a.m., which investigators believe may have been the moment she was abducted.

Two more attacks

The two linked rape cases show apparent similarities. On 30 October 1992, a 20-year-old woman was attacked in the Vlietbos area of Antwerp. The victim recalled that he smelled of alcohol and cigarettes and spoke with a Waas accent.

The second attack took place on 6 January 1993 near the viaduct on Linkeroever. A 24-year-old woman was dragged into nearby woods by a masked man who wore a balaclava and pulled a nylon stocking over her head, which he later took away. The attacker spoke standard Dutch and was described as “very forceful and aggressive.”

Ongoing search

Based on these accounts, investigators describe the suspect as a white man with black hair, aged around 25 to 30 at the time, approximately 1.80 metres tall and of slim build.

Police are now appealing for information from anyone who may have seen suspicious behaviour in the early 1990s near Blancefloerlaan (the former tram terminus) or the Vlietbos on Linkeroever. They are also seeking any other victims who may have encountered the same man but never reported the incident.

Investigators have released a composite sketch of a man seen staring intently at one of the victims on a tram. He was described as being between 28 and 30 years old, around 1.78 metres tall, with black hair (with some grey strands), a black moustache and large light-blue eyes.

The police underscore that it is not yet known whether this man was involved, but they wish to speak to him to rule out any connection.