The fire brigade in the Flemish town of Geraardsbergen, just outside of Brussels, has recovered parts of a Volkswagen Golf GTI during diving exercises in the Dender River.
The parts are believed to be linked to the infamous Brabant Killers gang, Het Laatste Nieuws reports.
The Brabant Killers, a gang that killed 28 people in a series of armed robberies in the 80s, used Golf GTIs as getaway cars. No suspects were ever found guilty of being part of the gang.
Earlier this summer, magnet fishers had already found dozens of Volkswagen Golf GTI parts at the same location, including a boot lid.
David Van de Steen, who survived the 1985 Delhaize attack in Aalst, was present during Thursday’s search.
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Speaking to Belga News Agency on Friday, Van de Steen said the recovered pieces appeared to come from a Golf GTI dating from between 1984 and 1990. He said the car seemed to have been completely dismantled and cut into small pieces.
“You do not do that to a car without reason,” he said. “It looks as if someone was determined to make sure that vehicle would never be found again.”
Van de Steen said the discovery was striking because stories have circulated for decades that a getaway car used by the Brabant killers had ended up in the Dender river. For now, however, no link to the gang’s robberies has been proven.
It is not yet clear whether the recovered parts will undergo further examination.
Van de Steen stressed that it has not been established that they came from a vehicle used by the gang, but said he hopes the discovery may help shed light on a case that still raises many questions more than 40 years after the bloody Delhaize attack in Aalst.
