Death of Julie and Mélissa: 30 years later, the same lump in the throat

Life imprisonment still exists, all families who have lost a child will be able to tell you about it.
 

Anyone who is now at least 40 years old remembers what they were doing the day Julie and Melissa's bodies were found, fourteen months after their disappearance. This legal case, which already had the country on tenterhooks, then plunged a little deeper into horror . It traumatized an entire country like no other had probably done before it, mixing the shameful dysfunctions between the gendarmerie and the police with the doubts and bottomless pain of the parents of the two girls; their lives were then irremediably plunged into an endless nightmare. Life imprisonment still exists, all the families who have lost a child will be able to tell you about it.

Belga

The interview that Gino Russo, Melissa's father, gave to the Dutch-language magazine Humo, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of this abominable tragedy (which we echo on page 19), moved us . With that lump in our throat that we already had at the time. With that sympathy as natural as it was powerless to soften the pain of these parents. With that conviction that Julie and Melissa should have been saved and that the whole truth will probably never emerge from this sordid affair. Let anyone who thinks that this is another example of conspiracy theories keep quiet now and forever, under penalty of indignity.

Victims are better listened to, but it remains a daily struggle

"In 1995, the justice system did not consider the disappearance of children important. Today, a lost dog receives more attention than a missing child did at the time." This sentence from Gino Russo can only resonate with us, questioning the place of the victim in society. The momentum that followed this national trauma will give greater importance to the victim in matters of justice: listening more to the voices of those who have lost everything, who, plunged into unbearable anguish, are looking for their loved ones or are themselves victims of violence. There have been responses from the authorities, Child Focus was born, the justice system and the police have been reformed. Victims are better listened to, but it remains a daily struggle, as current events regularly remind us. The least respect we owe to all victims is to never forget this.