Man tries to blow smoke into victim’s lungs with vacuum cleaner to cover up murder | Abroad

The facts happened on June 18, 2019 in Temse and Sint-Niklaas. The fire brigade was called to intervene in the victim’s home in Oude Molenstraat in Sint-Niklaas around 6.30 pm. The emergency services determined that a fire had raged and found the woman’s body. Ongena was in divorce proceedings with Dennis Peeters, and he was arrested after the fact.

Flamethrower

According to the pathologist, the woman was strangled, but Peeters denies that. He states that they got into an argument in his house in Temse when Ongena came to pick up their two children. He stated that in the garage he clamped both hands over her mouth and unconsciously pinched her nose. Peeters confessed that he then brought the body in a suitcase to her apartment, and set fire there to try to hide the facts.

The suitcase was shown to the jury members on Monday. It was a standard model in which the victim’s body just fit. The jury was also shown the first photos of the victim at the scene, with burns to the head. The fire expert testified Monday that materials were deliberately placed around the woman’s neck and head to cause maximum injuries. The items included a handbag, a night lamp and a power bank. An aerosol was also found and the expert suspects that Peeters used the deodorant aerosol as a flamethrower to mutilate the upper body.

suffocation

The explanation of the CSI team of the police showed how Peeters wanted to imitate death by suffocation in a fire. “I’ve been thinking how I could get smoke into my lungs,” said Peeters. His mother had been killed in 2010 by a neighbor who had set a fire afterwards, but because no soot was found in her lungs, they knew she had died before the fire.

After the fact, Peeters set fire to a tetra cloth in a cooking pot and tried to get soot into Ongena’s lungs with the vacuum cleaner. “I put the end in her mouth. I turned the vacuum on for a few seconds, but then turned it off immediately because her chest came up. I was afraid her lungs would burst. I’ve done it a number of times,” said the accused. Blood was later found on the end of the vacuum cleaner.

On Tuesday, the pathologist will have a say. The judgment is expected early next week.

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