It was a crime, committed on November 10, 2020 in Herentals, which had left the investigators perplexed. On the one hand, Maria Verlinden, aged 59, had been killed with 101 stab wounds. Such relentlessness on a body denotes in the author a paroxysmal emotional state. On the other hand, there were no signs of a break-in at the victim’s home and nothing had been taken away by the perpetrator.
Sixteen months later, the crime was solved. A man is in confession. Gunter Uwents, 37, was placed under an arrest warrant by the investigating judge. The investigation should determine his motive. Maria Verlinden had been his teacher in 1991 when he was in primary school.
According to his first declarations, reported by The last news and The newspapaer, the man explained that he went to the victim to explain himself to her regarding traumatic scenes that he would have experienced while he was in his class. It seems that the meeting went badly and that, in a fit of madness, he killed her with a knife.
Confirmed by DNA
The death of Maria Verlinden has long remained an enigma. The investigators had decided to summon a hundred people to give their DNA and compare it with that found at the crime scene. Uwents had used the Covid as a pretext to delay his meeting.
However, he preceded a final summons. His lawyer explained that he had been marked by the call, echoed by the Flemish press, of the victim’s husband. This man called on the author to denounce himself. Gunter Uwents told his lawyer that “the relatives of the victim had a right to the truth”.
Gunter Uwents gave himself up on Sunday. On Monday, DNA test results confirmed he was at the scene.