Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
A brutal murder took place on the night of January 22, 2017, on Belgium’s most prominent beach promenade in the hyped coastal resort of Knokke. That night, 27-year-old Sofie Muylle from Roeselare, 50 kilometers away, was tortured, raped, and killed there. The next day, her body was discovered by a passerby around noon under a picket fence on the beach. A few hours earlier, her boyfriend had informed the police that Sofie had suddenly disappeared that night. Who could be capable of such a heinous crime? Thanks to CCTV footage, a man wearing a distinctive blue coat who had remained at the scene for hours after the crime was identified. The man was 23-year-old Romanian Alexandru Caliniuc, whose DNA matched that found at the scene. On June 26, 2017, Alexandru was arrested in Romania on a European arrest warrant and handed over to Belgium on July 14, 2017. During police questioning, he confessed to raping Sofie. He had strangled Sofie until she lost consciousness. He then dragged the unconscious Sofie under the picket fence, where he raped her. He denied killing Sofie. As evidence, he presented photos and cell phone recordings showing Sofie dying, who was still alive when he left the scene. According to forensic doctors, Sofie had died of cardiac arrest in the freezing cold of the January night. In May 2021, the jury trial against Romanian Alexandru Caliniuc for the murder of Sofie Muylle took place at the Assize Court in Bruges, where the 12-member jury consisting of 8 women and 4 men found him guilty of passive murder and rape, but not torture. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
