| WHAT: | On June 24, 1995, two eight year-old Belgian girls, Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo, vanished while playing outside in their Liège neighborhood, never to be seen alive again. However, what happened to them was not an isolated incident. During the 1980s and 1990s, a serial killer, pedophile, and kidnapper named Marc Dutroux, who later became known as “Le Monstre,” terrorized the country of Belgium, abducting and murdering several young girls. Local and federal authorities were either unable or unwilling to stop Dutroux, the latter speaking to an alleged conspiracy that still divides the country to this day. After his arrest, in protest of the government’s handling of the investigation, approximately 400,000 Belgians took to the streets, ultimately leading to the dismantling of the Gendarmerie, a Belgian federal police force, and the reform of the justice system. On August 23, 2022, Tenderfoot TV and iHeartMedia will release their next “Monster” installment and newest podcast, LE MONSTRE. Hosted by podcast producer Matt Graves (“Hairy”), a Texas native who moved to Belgium at the time of these evil acts and distinctly recalls the chaos of living through one of the country’s darkest chapters. The series will dive deep into the crimes, investigation, and aftermath of these horrors, known as the “Dutroux Affair,” and will take a fresh look at Dutroux and his accomplices (both known and unknown), many of whom are still walking freely today. Joining Graves are numerous investigative journalists, authors, former police officers, judicial authorities, and psychologists, who all share insights on Belgian culture, the uprooting of the national justice system, and what may have led Dutroux to commit these psychotic crimes. In an effort to follow up on key unanswered questions surrounding one of Belgium’s darkest chapters, Graves also speaks to victims’ families who discuss their tragic experience, the search for their children, and how the Belgian justice system failed them then, and continues to fail them today, by not fully exploiting existing DNA evidence. |
| WHO: | Matt Graves is a podcast producer and host of LE MONSTRE. Originally from Austin, Texas, Graves moved to Belgium, where his wife is from, in the summer of 1995, in the midst of the kidnappings unbeknownst to him, and is still a resident. He vividly recalls the mood of a country on edge, and growing more and more frustrated with law enforcement. As a bi-lingual American who witnessed the chaos of this time, Graves is well-suited to bring it to life. |
