A 36-year-old woman was brutally killed last week in an apartment in Etterbeek, the Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office has confirmed.
The woman’s body was found by police officers on Monday evening, May 19th. Her partner, a 42-year-old man, was arrested and is being held in police custody. The murder reportedly took place on Rue Général Leman.
The victim has been named in the Romanian press as Olivia Botusan, a Romanian national who is said to have lived in Brussels for a number of years.
According to a family member, she was the mother of two children aged three and 13, and had worked as a French teacher in Romania before moving to Belgium.
Friends and family members paid tribute to Ms Botusan on social media. Loved ones described her as a “kind soul with a cheerful heart”, who had moved to Brussels “dreaming of a better life”.
Her sister, Alexandra Botusan, told Romanian television channel Antenna 3: “She loved her children very much. She would do anything for them.”
Ms Botusan’s family have issued an appeal for financial assistance to get her body repatriated from Belgium to Romania.
In a statement, Martin François, spokesperson for the Brussels public prosecutor's office, said: “The Brussels public prosecutor's office can confirm that on May 19th, the police intervened in an apartment in Etterbeek, where they found the lifeless body of a 36-year-old woman.”
Ms Botusan is one of several women to have been killed in Brussels over the past year. In December, a woman named Diana was stabbed to death in Schaerbeek, prompting a ‘silent march’ in her memory through the streets of the commune.
A suspect, identified as Diana's ex-partner, was arrested, has been charged with her killing.
