Philippe Rouaux had a few reversals in his young life. At age 20, he attempted to take his own life when a girlfriend broke off their relationship. Two years later, the quiet philosophy student was madly in love with 20- yearold Pascale Iserbiet. The attractive couple were engaged to marry when, for reasons of her own, Pascale broke off the engagement. Philippe didn’t take the rejection well. On Dec. 6, 1982, while sitting in his car in his hometown of Assesse, Belgium, he pointed a .22 calibre rifle at his head, pulled the trigger and ended his life.

Detectives investigating the apparent suicide found Philippe’s rifle lying in his lap. His right index fingerprint was on the trigger. They also learned of his previous suicide attempt and that three members of his mother’s family had taken their own lives. Case closed. At least for the time being.

On Nov. 5, 1983, an unrelated incident took place in Assesse when Dr. Michel Delescaille was reported missing by his wife Jacqueline. She stated her husband, a 33- year- old general practitioner and psychiatrist, had received a phone call the previous evening and had rushed out of their home, shouting over his shoulder that someone had broken their ankle. When he didn’t return home, Jacqueline went looking for Michel throughout the village, but could find no trace of him or his Opel Kadett.

Dr. Delescaille’s fate wasn’t a mystery for long. Within hours, a jogger, Marie Angares, came across the doctor’s car. She walked around the vehicle and saw Michel’s body lying in the mud some 30 feet from the car. Marie ran to a nearby town and alerted police. Soon detectives from Namur, the closest large city, took over the investigation. A physician examining the body found multiple wounds to the head.

In the mud near the body, detectives recovered two large bloody hammers with hair adhering to both. There were faint tire tracks beside the Opel, which indicated the murderers had driven away in their own vehicle. No doubt the phone call to the doctor’s house had been a ruse to lure him to his death. Who would have committed such a crime? Jacqueline and Michel were happily married. Detectives made discreet inquiries.

Jacqueline was totally devoted to her husband and their two children. There were no lovers lurking in the wings. Likewise, Michel was not involved with any women. There was absolutely no flaw in the couple’s married life. When the investigation wound down, police decided to interview each of Dr. Delescaille’s psychiatric patients in case one of them might have nurtured a real or imagined grudge against the physician. Only one was not interviewed, for the simple reason he was dead. As luck would have it, Philippe Rouaux had been one of Michel’s patients.

The doctor had diagnosed Philippe as a manic depressive,which was more or less confirmed when the poor boy shot himself after being rejected by his fiancee. By nature, police are curious. They took another hard look at Philippe’s suicide and turned up some startling discrepancies. Philippe had been left handed. You may recall that the fingerprint on the trigger was from his right index finger. Strangely enough, the investigative report indicated although Philippe had killed himself inside a vehicle, no empty shell had been recovered from the weapon’s chamber.

At the time, the missing empty shell was attributed to mishandling by investigators. Detectives interviewed one of Philippe’s friends, who said Philippe had confided he hated his father and was going to kill himself so his father would have a guilty conscience. At the time of the apparent suicide, it was believed Philippe had taken his life because of the termination of his engagement. All this served to reopen the Philippe Rouaux case. Three years had passed since Philippe’s death. Police were surprised when they received an anonymous note accusing Philippe’s ex- fiancée, Pascale Iserbiet, and her current boyfriend, Georges Landry, of murdering Philippe.

Pascale was hurt and at the same time insulted anyone would believe she had anything to do with the tragedy. She had an airtight alibi for the time of Philippe’s death. As for Georges, he wasn’t even in the area, nor did he know Pascale at the time. Police wrote them off as suspects, but actively attempted to find out who would send such an incriminating letter. Because the letter was mailed in Assesse, police showed the envelope to post office clerks. Sure enough, one of the clerks recalled having seen the handwriting before, but couldn’t remember where. Police made photocopies of the envelope and gave a copy to each employee. In this way, they could compare the writing to any other similar mail which passed through their hands.

Three days later, letters turned up at the post office with handwriting matching that on the photocopied envelope. The letter accusing Pascale and Georges had been written by Pierre Rouaux, Philippe’s father. When Pierre was questioned, he admitted sending the anonymous letter to police stating Pascale was responsible for his son’s death when she broke off their engagement. Police explained that Pascale may have been indirectly responsible, but that was not a criminal offence. Besides, suicide ran in the family and Philippe had attempted suicide before he ever met Pascale.

The elderly Rouaux underwent extensive questioning. Finally, both he and his wife, Bernadette, broke. They blamed Dr. Delescaille, their son’s psychiatrist, for his death. It was they who had made the phone call about the broken ankle. Both had rained blows to the physician’s head with the big hammers as he crawled in the mud. On March 29, 1988, Bernadette and Pierre Rouaux were found guilty of murder and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. The suspicious death of Philippe Rouaux has never been solved.

Bron: Truro Daily News | 10 December 2011 | Max Haines

Dr. Delescaille zijn vader was ook Dr. Delescaille. Er is kritiek bij onze Waalse vrienden daar zij van mening zijn dat de vader betrokken was als 'dokter' bij de meisjes binnen het circus van Tuna.