ELS CLOTTEMANS and Els Van Doren were close pals. They had the same name, the same passion for skydiving, and the same lover. But it all ended badly.
Ms Clottemans stands accused of murdering her friend, by cutting the cords of her parachute. Her trial opened yesterday. It has captivated Belgium.
Ms Van Doren (38) was a married mother of two. She met her death almost four years ago when her parachute failed. She jumped from an aircraft with Ms Clottemans and the man they both loved, Marcel Somers. She plunged 4,000m into a suburban back garden in the village of Opglabbeek. The residents heard a loud thud.
Her death was recorded on a small video-camera attached to her helmet. As she hurtled to the ground, she was seen to struggle in vain with her equipment. She had no chance.
Ms Clottemans was 22 back then, and a trainee teacher. She was arrested two months later after investigators discovered her friend’s parachute had been tampered with. Suspicions were aroused after police discovered the three-way romance with Mr Somers, a Dutch skydiving instructor.
A bachelor, he spent Friday nights with Ms Clottemans and Saturday nights with Ms Van Doren.
However, Ms Clottemans had been humiliated a week before the death when Mr Somers chose to spend a night in his apartment with Ms Van Doren instead of her.
There is no direct evidence to prove she interfered with the parachute. But investigators have worked on the theory that Ms Clottemans, who slept elsewhere that night in his apartment, would have had access to her friend’s skydiving equipment.
Ms Clottemans denies murder and or any “crime of jealousy”. She accuses police of belittling and intimidating her. She says they blindly pursued only one line of inquiry.
The jury trial in the northeastern town of Tongeren is expected to continue for up to four weeks, with 177 witnesses to be called.
Interest in the case was so great that the proceedings were relayed live on television to a room adjoining the court. The case centres on a weekly skydiving expedition the two women made with Mr Somers and another man, all members of the same Flemish parachuting club.
On a grim Saturday in November 2006, they jumped from a Cessna plane to make a mid-air formation. For a moment, Ms Clottemans unexpectedly delayed her own jump from the aircraft. By that stage, her friend’s macabre fate was sealed.
Experts have identified signs that Ms Clottemans suffers from a psychopathic disorder.
She has been linked to an anonymous letter to Ms Van Doren and anonymous phone calls to her. She is also alleged to have suggested to Ms Van Doren’s husband that he inquire into her weekend activities.
Suicide was ruled out, as she visibly tried to avert catastrophe. “Els tried everything to try to save herself,” said Luc Deijgers, the pilot of the Cessna. “She tried to open the reserve parachute but it wouldn’t open. That never happens,” he told Belgian television.
