The unsolved death of Brussels student Christiane Heiser

The Luxembourgish student was 21 years old when she was found dead in her Brussels campus studio on 12 November 1992. The case occurred 40 years ago, but to this day investigators have no explanation for her violent death. There have been strong theories, but little evidence.

As part of the DNA TV series by RTL, which aired over a decade ago, journalists Guy Weber and Dan Wiroth put a timeline together of Christiane's last days, speaking to family members, lawyers, friends and acquaintances of the victim. They sought to find the missing puzzle pieces to see whether they had an angle into the case the police did not.

Police did eventually rule Christiane's death a homicide, but still no one has been convicted of Christiane's murder. Was it premeditated, or an accident? Was it a burglary gone wrong, or was Christiane simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Christiane's parents, Denise and Roby Heiser, feel that they are not being taken seriously by authorities. "We’ve always felt like we’re with our backs to the wall", says Denise. But hope remains, says the mother: "Christiane doesn’t want us to stop looking for the truth."

Here's what we know so far.

A positive child

Christiane Heiser was born on 3 June 1971 in Esch. She lived in Foetz with her parents and younger brother Claude. Christiane was always a positive and energetic child, with a funny character. She was fairly tall, had light brown hair to her shoulders, and she always projected a big smile on photographs.

At the age of 19, Christiane went on school exchange to the US. Upon her return to Luxembourg, she considered starting her studies in Scotland, and was accepted to the university of St. Andrews. But for unknown reasons she decided to study in Brussels instead. As a matter of fact, her parents were quite happy about her choice to study closer to home, as Brussels, unlike St. Andrews, did not require extensive travelling.

In the autumn of 1992, Christiane moved to the Belgian capital and began studies in economics. Finding housing last-minute was rather challenging, but she ultimately found a one-room studio apartment, equipped with a private bathroom and kitchen, via an agency on the campus of the Université libre de Bruxelles, room 1-318. The building complex also housed other Luxembourgish students, so to Christiane it would be like a family away from home.

© DNA

Days leading up to death

On Sunday 8 November 1992, after spending the weekend with her parents in Foetz, Christiane prepared for her journey back to Brussels. She carpooled with two friends, and notified her parents upon arrival. The trip was uneventful.

The following morning, on Monday 9 November, Christiane attended courses as usual. In the afternoon she met up with a friend, who would go on to become the last person to see Christiane alive. They parted ways at 6pm, and the friend, who lived in a different apartment block than Christiane, went home. It is assumed that Christiane returned to her studio.

On Tuesday, 10 November, Christiane was not present in class, but no one really noticed, as everyone was still new. Apparently, on Monday, Christiane had told her friend that she didn’t feel too well, so her friend would most likely have thought that she took the day off to recover.

The following day, Wednesday 11 November, was a Belgian national holiday, which is Remembrance Day in Belgium, and there are no classes. Then, on Thursday 12 November, three days after she was last seen, the friend noticed her absence in class again. She went upstairs to knock on Christiane’s door, but there was no response, so she slipped a note under the door asking Christiane to contact her. The friend returned in the afternoon, tried knocking on the door again, to no avail.

Newspapers report that a group of acquaintances informed Brussels police of the situation. Assisted by the concierge of the apartment block, and the firefighters of the nearby barracks, the police only managed to enter the apartment after having forced the locked outside door. Around 12.45pm on Thursday, upon entry into the studio, they came across a horrific scene.

There was a large quantity of blood on the floor. The bathroom door was locked, and this one had to be broken down too. Clearly someone had used Christiane’s keys, or a key that fit both doors, to lock both the bathroom door and outside door of the studio, and then block the entrance. Upon entry, they found Christiane lying in the shower covered in blood and in a state of undress, with a plastic bag over her head. She was found to have suffered a total of 33 stab wounds, caused by a kitchen knife. Cuts were found on the left wrist, right forearm, both ears and left eye. No sexual violence appeared to have been inflicted on the victim.

Burglary or a serial killer?

Police were quick to put the building’s security into question, because it turned out that anyone could enter the apartment complex right up to the front door of these individual apartments. There would have been a lot of traffic in these corridors – students leaving for class, students returning home. Maybe there were friends and family that would come to visit.

Based on preliminary investigations, police came up with four possible explanations for the killing.

The first possible explanation was an apparent beggar that had slept in the corridor. What led investigators to take a sample of his DNA was that he was carrying snippets of newspaper articles about Christiane’s murder. Despite Roby and Denise's persistence to have this man interrogated, police could not find any proof of his involvement, apart from a possible obsession or simple interest with collecting these articles. The DNA of this man did not match the DNA of Christiane.

The second possible explanation was a burglary gone bad. Could Christiane have been at the wrong place at the wrong time? What may have pointed to this latter theory was that money from her wallet, along with keys to her car, her room and her parents house, were missing. It is unclear whether Christiane had any items of significant value.

Investigators spoke to all students living in the complex, but no one saw or heard anything. Gerard Floener, one of Christiane’s neighbours living in the same corridor, would later tell police that on that Monday he was not home, as he had spent the night somewhere else and returned in the morning. In fact, almost no one living in the corridor was home on Monday evening, as there was a party hosted somewhere off campus. Christiane did not attend.

Local and national newspapers report about the crime. ("A horrible crime at the ULB"). / © DNA

Police of course also checked Christiane’s circle of family, friends and acquaintances. Christiane’s boyfriend at the time and her ex-boyfriend were called in, but they were both ruled out. But there could have been a different explanation: the previous tenant. What if the killer was looking for the woman living there before, and accidentally killed Christiane, who had only moved in several weeks earlier into room 1-318?

These theories did not gain much traction, however. But police came up with another possible suspect: It is the story of Christian H.

Suspect Christian H.

In 1993, eight months after the death of Christiane, a girl called Inge Waeterloos was killed in a similar attack in Leuven, 30 minutes east of Brussels. Christian H. would later confess to her murder. The similarities between both cases are striking, and it may well be that Inge’s murderer and Christiane’s murderer are the same person.

Six weeks prior to Christiane’s death, Christian H. was randomly stopped by Belgian police in Ghent. In the car they found chains and handcuffs. He was sent to a mental hospital, but was granted permission throughout the day to continue following his studies outside the mental institute. Christian H. was unemployed at the time and wanted to work in construction.

© DNA

Police searched his room and came across an item of interest. Christian H. had compiled a document with a newspaper snippet titled “girls hunt”.  In this document, he detailed how he was hunting girls, what he’d do to them, how he’d kill them, and how he would make sure there’d be no evidence. The modus operandi of Christiane’s murder matched his.

Furthermore, on 10 November, he did not attend his study classes, the same day that Christiane was missing. This could be mere coincidence, or it could indicate some sort of involvement. Police would then later find out that Christian H. was indeed near Brussels on the evening of Christiane’s death.

But there was another strange event: Christiane and Christian H. may have met each other prior to the murder.

One day, Christiane and a friend were driving their car, leaving Brussels, and were stopped by a police officer for speeding. The officer asked both of them to step out of the car and show their papers. Police later found fake police officer IDs in Christian H.'s room, indicating he may have stalked and tracked his victims. But despite thorough questioning and a DNA test, police could not charge Christian H. with the murder of Christiane. The DNA did not match.

DNA and fingerprints were taken from Christiane’s room and were later compared to perpetrators in European databases, but without any results. Could this point towards an individual not known to the authorities, a first-time criminal? Christiane was found in the shower. Maybe the murderer attempted to wash off the evidence.

To this day, the family and their lawyer are convinced Christian H. is the murderer. When police found those fake police IDs, they also located pictures and addresses of young women. But Christiane’s photo and address was never part of that list. Christian H., even though he was found guilty for the death of Inge, was deemed unfit to stand trial and interned at a mental hospital. Today, he remains locked up in a psychiatric institute in Leuven.

Christian H. was accused of the murder. In his room they found a diary titled "Girls Hunt". / © DNA

A never-ending story

It’s a roller coaster ride of feelings and emotions. Whenever a murder case is solved in Belgium, the dossier of Christiane Heiser is reopened. This was also the case in 2000, when Raphaël Vinck was arrested. He had killed a 22-year-old French nursing student in her campus room in a different city, Tournai. He had confirmed to have been living near Brussels until 2-3 months after Christiane was murdered.

Over the course of the next years, two serial killers were also thought to have been connected and became possible suspects: Ronald Janssen as well as Michel Fourniret, who had both raped and killed numerous individuals. Again, their DNA did not match. At the end of the day, there were many tracks, but all led police investigators to a dead end.

But then in the year of 2000, something unimaginable occurred. The materials located in Christian H.’s room, this book with pictures and addresses, the evidence...disappeared.

Newspapers called it a “scandal” and “potential evidence destroyed”. Christiane’s lawyer said that he was stupefied and shocked to find out that the Brussels court had ordered the destruction of the files. To this day nobody knows who gave the order.

One would imagine a crime case to be stored until the crime is solved. In an interview with RTL, the spokesperson of the public prosecutor said that all possible routes were explored, but the judge could not find anyone guilty.

In this series, RTL Today dives into a Luxembourgish crime case. Some are solved, others continue to baffle investigators until this day. This week's story is a little different, but still involves the Grand Duchy – and crime. Find previous stories in our history section or here.