The four-month-old corpse of a 54-year-old man has been found at Charleroi airport in Belgium.
The man, named locally as Spanish national José A.T., had been living in Belgium for a few months and was reported to be working in the underworld. He disappeared from the radar at the end of January, for months before the discovery this week of his putrefied corpse in the back of his Luxembourg-registered car, in the express car park of the Charleroi Airport, Ryanair’s main hub.
The man had no identity documents on him when he was found, but has been formally identified by the authorities. He is said to have been active in the prostitution business. An autopsy did not yield a conclusive answer on the cause of his death, since the deceased was in an advanced state of decomposition. Reports say the man appeared to be in bad health when he arrived in Belgium.
What is certain is that he was not the victim of a gunshot; no bullet was found, and no bones showed signs of fracture or cracking. A toxicological examination is underway. It is not yet possible to say whether he died of natural causes or of a brutal death such as suffocation. The body is currently at the Fontaine-Fostier funeral home in Gilly, near Charleroi. No contact has yet been made with any family members.
The man had settled in Belgium near the city of Arlon. The suspicion is he picked up girls at the airport, but it’s unsure whether he did this as a pimp or a low-level member of a ring. No-one reported his disappearance.
The guards of Charleroi airport said their attention was drawn to the state of the man’s car. The car park is a drop-off point where cars do not stay for a long time, but his car was covered in a layer of dust. When they opened the unlocked door, they found the corpse in the back seat.
