Marc Dutroux, who imprisoned six young girls in a basement dungeon from 1995 to 1996, was apprehended only after receiving numerous tips and a police visit, during which the officers disregarded the pleas of his victims below.

In the 1990s, as young girls began to vanish across Belgium, law enforcement had ample reason to suspect Marc Dutroux. His own mother had alerted the authorities to his activities, claiming he was holding girls captive in one of his residences. Furthermore, Dutroux had a prior criminal record, having been convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting several young women and girls in the 1980s, before being released on parole in 1992.

Despite these alarming indicators, it took an inexplicably long time for the police to take action against Dutroux. When they finally arrested him, they discovered that he had kidnapped, raped, and tortured at least six women and girls, four of whom had tragically lost their lives.

To exacerbate the situation, it was later uncovered that Dutroux had been living off government assistance and utilizing state-funded drugs to sedate his victims, leading to widespread public outrage directed at the Belgian authorities, as well as the emergence of conspiracy theories regarding pedophile networks and potential government complicity.