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Missing woman in Peru: Belgian authorities consider foul play

13:40 21/02/2022

A team of Belgian police investigators arrive in Peru today (Monday), indicating that authorities suspect foul play in the case of the disappearance of Natacha de Crombrugghe while solo-hiking in the country.  

The 28-year-old from Linkebeek, near Brussels, has been missing for four weeks, Bruzz reports. 

In addition to an investigator from the Missing Persons Unit, two federal police officers are travelling to Peru to join the ongoing search. 

The team’s efforts are concentrated on the village of Cabanaconde, where de Crombrugghe left her backpack at a hostel on 24 January before embarking on a challenging trek through one of the deepest gorges in the world. 

She hasn’t been seen since, apart from in images taken by a surveillance camera in the village that show her leaving the hostel alive. 

Suspicion of criminal intent

One reason why police are suspicious of a crime taking place, rather than de Crombrugghe simply getting lost or injured in a hiking accident, is due to the travel app she used to keep in touch with her family and share photos that attached her location for safety purposes. 

The last signal from the app was before she left the village for her hike, meaning something may have happened to her before she set out for the gorge. 

The Belgian investigators were only recently given permission by the Peruvian government to help in the search. 

“Going on site is always an advantage,” Alain Remue of the Missing Persons Unit told Het Nieuwsblad. “It puts us in a better position to find out where Natacha disappeared and where she may have gone.”

The Belgian team will work in close consultation with the local team, which has grown to more than 80 Peruvian rescuers and police officers. They are supported by locals who know how to navigate the sometimes treacherous passes in the gorges through their work collecting insect eggs used to create pigments. 

A police spokesperson emphasised that Belgian investigators will not be taking over the investigation, which remains in the hands of Peruvian police. 

But the Belgian team is being sent to Peru because her disappearance has also been reported in her home country, where a parallel investigation is headed by the Federal Judicial Police in Brussels.  

“We are going to support them all as best we can in the hope of finding her,” the Belgian investigators said, adding that all avenues remain open in terms of what an investigation could uncover.

 

Written by Helen Lyons