Michel Van Wijnendaele
Mass murderer
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- Gender
- male
- Country
- Belgium
- Location
- Bogaarden, Belgium
- Date of birth
- 1959
- Age at first offence
- 28
- Characteristics
- murder-suicide, escape
- Victim profile
- Five members of one family / A witness and her 3-year-old son
- Method of murder
- Shooting
- Date(s) of murder
- May 12, 1987
- Years active
- 1987
- Date of arrest
- —
- Status
-
Died in custody
Committed suicide the same day Guman kills 7 in Belgium
Case overview
Michel Van Wijnendaele was found dead in his car after killing seven people in Belgium. The police said he apparently shot himself when officers stopped his car during a large manhunt.
The offence
Van Wijnendaele shot dead five members of a family and wounded a sixth person at a farm in Pepingen. He then followed and killed a witness and her 3-year-old son before fleeing by car.
In Bogaarden, south of Brussels, Van Wijnendaele ran amok and injured his own parents-in-law when he broke into a farmhouse and killed a 90-year-old man and his wife, aged 84. He also killed a middle-aged couple and one son aged 20. Another son, aged 24, was seriously injured with a bullet in his stomach and another in his shoulder, and was in a serious condition in a Brussels hospital.
Van Wijnendaele left the house and killed a woman and her three-year-old son outside a neighbouring farmhouse. Police believed he feared they might recognize him.
About four hours later, Van Wijnendaele attacked another farmhouse at Denderwindeke, near Aalost, shooting and seriously injuring a middle-aged couple who identified him as their own son-in-law.
Investigation and manhunt
Police roadblocks were thrown up around the area in an attempt to cordon it off before the man could escape. The hunt continued for the killer, who escaped in a blue Opel car. Police units across the country were put on alert.
A police spokesman said: “We think he was a bit of a lunatic.” Police did not know the motive for the farmhouse killings. They dismissed any connection with supermarket murders in Aalost in 1985, when masked gunmen mowed down innocent shoppers in an apparently motiveless but well-organized attack.
Death
Van Wijnendaele was found dead in his car the same day. The police said he apparently shot himself when police carrying out a huge manhunt stopped his car.
Other details
Van Wijnendaele was aged 28.
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