A four-year-old boy abducted in Belgium last week was found dead in Zeeland, Dutch police confirmed on Monday night. Dean Verbecoe was last with his family on Wednesday and was reportedly abducted by his babysitter Dave De K. on Friday, the boy’s mother said.
The alleged perpetrator, a 34-year-old Belgian, was arrested by police in Meerkerk, Utrecht earlier in the day. Immediately after his arrest, the Dutch police issued an Amber Alert for the young boy.
Police later said his body was found in Neeltje Jans near Vrouwenpolder. “The police investigation revealed a possible crime scene on Monday afternoon,” police said in a statement. “The police helicopter also took off to have a clear picture of the area. Around 10 p.m. they located the lifeless body of a child “.
On Twitter, Zeeland police said: “We thank everyone for their help and our condolences to the family.”
The perpetrator served eight years out of ten years in prison, starting in 2010 for child abuse that resulted in the death of a 2-year-old, Belgian prosecutors told the Belga news agency. “The person concerned served his sentence and the sentence expired in December 2018,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Verbecoes’s mother, Elke, was unable to care for the child due to a medical problem on Wednesday and asked a friend and the perpetrator to care for Dean overnight. The child had been with the couple in the past without any problems and was excited to visit them again, his mother told local media.
Dean was supposed to be left at his grandparents’ house on Thursday but decided to keep the child at home for another night, Verberckmoes told Belgian media. The next day he said that the perpetrator had a fight with his partner and left with the child in the car. The mother and the perpetrator had contact on Saturday afternoon, but then stopped answering her phone calls. A police report was issued on Sunday and Dutch authorities were involved on Monday.
Police said they believed the two were somewhere in the south of the Netherlands. The man’s car, a gray Peugeot, was later found on a commercial property in Gorinchem, Zuid-Holland. He was arrested in Meerkerk later in the day.
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