Skydiver cuts love rivals parachute strings to death

The skydiver’s horrific final moments were captured by the video camera on her helmet. Els Van Doren plunged screaming for more than half a mile as she frantically struggled to open her sabotaged parachute.

On Oct. 20, a jury found fellow skydiver Els “Babs” Clottemans guilty of her friend’s murder, the crime motivated by a deadly rivalry for the affections of the lover they shared.

Clottemans, 26, had always denied the charge that she’d caused the fatal fall in November 2006.

“I’m really innocent and can only keep on repeating it” she pleaded in a final appeal to the jury. “For four years I’ve been accused of something I didn’t do.”

However, the 12 members of the jury in the eastern Belgian city of Tongeren took just four hours to find her guilty of premeditated murder.

The primary school teacher's face was ashen as the verdict was read. The victim’s tearful husband and teenage children hugged. On that day, Clottemans was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The victim, Els Van Doren, had led a double life.

During the week the 37-year-old mother of two worked with her husband in the family jewelry store. Weekends she spent at the Zwartburg parachute club to enjoy her passion for skydiving and to meet her long-time lover, fellow club member Marcel Somers.

The three were friends, but unknown to Van Doren, Somers had also begun an affair with Clottemans. A week before the fatal jump, the three of them spent the night at Somers’ home in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. Van Doren shared Somers’ bed, while Clottemans was consigned to the sofa in the front room.

The prosecution claimed that she was infuriated by the couples’ lovemaking in the room next door, and took a pair of scissors to cut the strings of her rival’s parachute, which was stored in Somers’ apartment.

Somers and Clottemans both jumped with Van Doren from a Cessna light aircraft flying two and a half miles over the Belgian countryside on Nov. 18, 2006. Together with another man they were supposed to link hands and free fall in a star formation, but Clottemans jumped too late to join them. She was able to look down on the other woman’s fatal fall.

At first all seems fine on the video, but when the signal is given to open the parachutes, Van Doren’s fails to open. An experienced skydiver with more than 2,300 jumps behind her, she tries desperately to activate the reserve 'chute before crashing to her death in a garden in the northeastern village of Opglabbeek.

Media interest in the case has been intense over the four weeks of the trial and Belgian television networks carried the reading of the verdict live.

Defense lawyers argued that there was no forensic evidence linking their client to the killing. Clottemans had pointed the finger at Somers or Van Doren’s husband, Jan De Wilde.

Somers had told the court Van Doren was the “love of his life” and he bitterly regretted becoming involved with Clottemans. De Wilde said he’d learned about his wife’s affair only after her death and therefore had no motive for the killing.

The jury agreed with prosecutors that circumstantial evidence linking Clottemans to the crime was overwhelming. Her jealousy provided the motive and she had ample opportunity to tamper with both the main- and reserve-parachutes during the night at Somers’ apartment and the necessary expertise to sabotage Van Doren’s kit without the damage being visible.

“Els Clottemans carries an unspeakable anger within her,” Jef Vermassen, attorney for the victims’ family said in his closing arguments. “It has led to the most horrible type of attack: murder. She is totally intensive and feels no empathy.” (Global Post)

20代 여성, ‘연적’ 낙하산 줄 몰래 끊어 추락사시켜

삼각관계에 놓인 벨기에 20대 여성이 연적(戀敵)의 낙하산 줄을 끊어 살해한 혐의로 유죄 평결을 받았다.

20일(현지시각) 벨기에 동부 통헤런 지방법원에 따르면 2006년 스카이다이버였던 엘스 판도런(사망당시 38세·여)의 낙하산 줄을 훼손해 추락사하게 한 혐의로 같은 스카이다이빙 동호회 회원인 엘스 클로테만스(26)에게 징역 30년이 선고했다.

법원에 따르면 클럽 회원인 두 여성과 문제의 남성 마르셀 소머스는 경비행기를 타고 4500m 상공으로 올라가 함께 뛰어내렸다.

판도런은 주 낙하산과 예비 낙하산이 모두 펼쳐지지 않아 그대로 지상에 추락, 현장에서 즉사했다.

경찰은 낙하산 줄이 훼손된 점에 주목해 수사에 착수했다. 그 결과 판도런의 2개 낙하산은 모두 줄이 끊어져 있었다는 사실이 확인됐다.

수사 결과 두 사람이 한 남성을 사이에 둔 연적(戀敵) 관계인데다 클로테만스가 사고 1주일 전 이 남성의 집에 있던 판도런의 낙하산을 훼손할 기회가 있었다는 사실을 알아냈다.

검찰은 클로테만스의 살인동기가 한 남성에 대한 독점적 소유욕이었다며 무기징역을 구형했고, 12명으로 구성된 배심원단은 지난 20일 정황 증거만으로 클로테만스에게 유죄 평결을 내렸다.

클로테만스는 형량의 3분의 1인 최소 10년 이상을 복역해야 가석방 기회를 얻을 수 있다.