Belgian police plan to confront a 71-year-old pastor with the daughter who says she helped him slay five family members. Police said on Saturday that Ms Agnes Pandy (39) had admitted to involvement in the murders of her mother, two brothers, a stepsister and her father's second wife.
Her father, Pastor Andras Pandy, with whom she says she had an incestuous relationship, has denied charges of murdering two ex-wives and four of his eight children between 1986 and 1990.
Police planned to confront the two at the weekend to shed light on the case but had to postpone the meeting because of the pastor's demands for money before he will co-operate, a source close to the investigation said yesterday.
Investigators also suspended the questioning of Ms Pandy yesterday because of her fragile psychological state, the source said. The interrogation will resume today.
The investigation is hampered by the disappearance of victims' bodies. According to police, Ms Pandy said bodies were sliced up, with some parts dissolved in acid and others dumped in plastic bags around Brussels.
However, the public prosecutor, Mr Francois Monsieur, said: "I have other things up my sleeve. Even without bodies, I can easily check her confessions." A source close to the inquiry said at least one weapon which could have been used in the crimes had been found in a house owned by Pastor Pandy in Brussels.
Police fear the death toll may be as high as 10 after the remains of four people found in a house owned by the Hungarian-born pastor were shown not to be those of family members. They have also to account for a sixth missing relative - Ms Pandy's step-sister, Tunde. Pastor Pandy is accused of her murder but his daughter said she did not know what happened to her.
Investigators have refused to comment on press reports that the pastor decided to murder Tunde by himself, along with four young Hungarian women whom he lured to Belgium. Mr Monsieur said investigators were awaiting information from Hungarian police.
Police have also yet to establish a motive for the killings. "It was the father who ordered the murders," Mr Monsieur said on Saturday, but added: "As for motives, we know absolutely nothing."
The horrific nature of the case and the increasingly bizarre details uncovered have stunned Belgium, already rocked by a string of nightmarish killings. The daily, La Derniere Heure, said the Pandy case had reached "rare heights" of horror, even worse than that of the abduction killings of six Belgian girls, or a serial killer who has left plastic bags containing the dismembered remains of four women in the southern city of Mons.