Cycling Tour “De moorden van Beernem” (Cycle Route Case De Zutter)

The Flemish landscape of Bruges and its surroundings offers many opportunities for cycling between nature, culture and architecture.

We recommend the Cycle Route “Case De Zutter”, a kind of Cluedo cycling tour with the theme of one of the most mysterious murders in Beernem, near Bruges. (1915-1944). The route is closely interwoven with the historical and film locations of the film “Zaak De Zutter” by Katrien Ryserhove, based on the books of her father Alfons Ryserhove.

The course runs through the Lippensgoed-Bulskampveld Landscape Park, a very wooded nature reserve of 90 km2 on the outskirts of Bruges. Lippensgoed alone offers a walking network of 150 km.

Film locations along the cycle route.

1 Zurkelkasteelke:

This pretty little castle dating from 1847 is the former home of Oscar De Vos, friend of Hector De Zutter. On the morning of 8 November 1926, Julienne, Hector’s sister, goes to the Zurkelkasteelke; she is worried because her brother has not come home that night. She wants to know whether Hector has stayed overnight at Oscar’s. Apparently Hector has stayed overnight at Oscar’s. Apparently Hector stayed the night at Etienne Schepers’s house in Wellingstraat, but there she finds the house locked.

2 Goed van den Bogaerde:

Former residence of the De Zutter family.  Hector’s mother Leontine Goes becomes a widow at a young age. Two sons and nine daughters stay behind with their mother. They manage as a family until the night in 1926 when Hector is found murdered.

3 Bulskampveld Castle:

It’s the roaring twenties of the early 20th century and the flamboyant mayor of Beernem, knight Etienne de Vriere, is not averse to a little adventure. There is the relationship between him and Cecile, the wife of Baron d’Udekem d’Acoz and then on 25 May 1915 the disappearance of the Baron from his castle in Ruddervoorde. This is the start of a whole series of murders, one more mysterious than the other. Early September 1915 some tree pruners find the corpse of the baron with bullets in his back buried near the Aanwijs (Bulskampveld).

Shortly before (18 August), forester Camiel Dierickx, nickname Sassen, had disappeared and his body was never found. Evil tongues claim he knew too much and that this cost him his life.

In May 1921, the 21 year-old René De Baene dies in suspicious circumstances; apparently he was rather loose about the baron d’Udekem d’Acoz and Dierickx in a drunken stupor.

In November 1926, Hector De Zutter was murdered and his body was fished out of the Channel three weeks later. He too had spread information about the baron and Dierickx.

May 1927 the 27-year-old orphan boy Ernest Van Poucke is pulled out of the canal. He too was loose about the Beernem murders.

4 Castle Three Kings

This is where Cecile van Outryve d’Ydewalle (1879) lived with her husband, Baron d’Udekem d’Acoz. The marriage is more of a marriage of convenience without children and eventually they each go their separate ways.  The baroness becomes the lover of knight Etienne de Vriere, the mayor of Beernem. Later, during World War I, she becomes the mistress of the German baron Heinrich von Gagern, who is stationed in her birthplace, castle der Lakebosschen.

The Baron d’ Acoz was murdered on 25 May 1915 and his body was only found on 2 September in the Bulskampveld/Lippensgoed nature park in Beernem.

5 Cafe De Linde

After a fair night (Nov. 7, 1926) with the necessary drinking in café De Linde, Hector went for a bite to eat with Etienne Schepers, the brother-in-law of his friend and constable Hoste. Hector will not leave the house alive.

Three weeks after that fair night, his body was fished out of the canal, near the Moerbrugge bridge. The forensic doctor decides that natural drowning is the cause of death. Oscar, Hector’s cousin, informed the public prosecutor’s office of Bruges and asked for a new autopsy. In December, the verdict is natural drowning.  However, Hector’s clothes were torn and there was a clear head wound.

6 Town hall Beernem

Death continues to stir many minds, and a new judicial investigation into the cause of death is launched. After a dismissal in Bruges, an appeal in Ghent, Cassation follows and there is an assize court trial on June 29. On July 19, the trial is adjourned and Etienne Schepers and field sergeant Hoste are sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment.

At the beginning of the 20th century, especially between 1915 and 1944, several murders were committed, some of which are still unsolved.

Start: free parking at the carpool parking exit Beernem, E40 or parking Aanwijs (near Bulskampveld)

Book an overnight stay in the vicinity of Bruges amidst the crime scene of the Beernem murders between nature, architecture and culture.

Enjoy a day of cycling and combine it with a visit to historic Bruges.

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