Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
Ronald Alain Janssen, better known as “Le Prof,” went down in Belgian criminal history as a serial killer and rapist. But first things first. On May 3, 2007, the body of 18-year-old Annick Van Uytsel from Diest was found in the Albert Canal in Lummen. Her body had been weighted down with stones weighing 14.5 kilograms. The young girl had disappeared on April 28, 2007, while riding her bike home. Since then, more than 70 police officers, 200 volunteers, and a helicopter had been searching for Annick until her body was found and, a few months later, her bike, which had apparently been repainted. Three years had passed without the police finding any leads on Annick’s killer, who, according to the autopsy, had been brutally tortured before being beaten to death. On January 2, 2010, the fire department was called to extinguish a burning car. Inside, they found two bodies that had been shot to death. The bodies were those of 18-year-old Shana Appeltans and her 22-year-old boyfriend Kevin Paulus. The trail quickly led to their 39-year-old neighbor Ronald Alain Janssen, who was arrested by the police on January 4, 2010, and confessed on the same day to the murder of the young couple and the rape of Shana, which he later retracted. During the investigation, it emerged that Janssen had also murdered Annick Van Uytsel. He had followed her on April 28, 2007. He overpowered Annick and abducted her to his home, where he threatened her with a knife. There he killed Annick with a hammer. To make sure she was dead, he then held her head under water. Robert Alain Janssen had been considered a law-abiding, polite citizen who was born on February 6, 1971, as the third child of a family of four in Boorsem. During his childhood, he was bullied by other children because of his lisp. But it wasn’t just them who tormented him. His tyrannical father, who worked as a miner, also made life hell for him and his family. Janssen began to suffer from insomnia. In order to get rid of his hated father, he is said to have administered a different liquid to treat his diabetes instead of insulin. Finally, his mother Hilda, who worked as a housekeeper, divorced her tyrannical husband. From then on, all the children lived with their beloved mother Hilda. In 1993, Janssen graduated with honors with a degree in industrial engineering. In the same year, he met his future wife Natalie, with whom he moved to Genk in 1996, where he worked as a production manager in a company. He then taught mechanics and computer science in Masseik until 2000. In mid-2000, he moved with Natalie and their two daughters to Loksbergen, where he taught computer science, economics, technology, and applied mechanics at Herk-De-Stad. Everything seemed perfect until Natalie separated from Janssen in 2006, after which he lived alone. He was known among his neighbors for his nightly walks due to his insomnia. No one would ever have believed that a beast was hiding behind the nice teacher. On September 20, 2011, the trial against Ronald Alain Janssen began in Limburg. One month later, Janssen was found guilty by the jury without mitigating circumstances of triple murder, kidnapping, and rape with torture, and was sentenced to life imprisonment on October 21, 2011. Janssen had confessed to five other rapes during police interrogations. However, he is alleged to have raped up to 20 women. On September 10, 2012, he was tried for a second time before the Limburg Criminal Court in Hasselt. To this day, Ronald Alain Janssen remains in prison to serve his sentence for his heinous crimes.
