The Murder of Ghislaine Thissen

The death of Ghislaine Thissen at a farm in Gemmenich initially came with an explanation from the person closest to the scene: her husband said she had accidentally died while cleaning a large milk tank. Investigators and forensic specialists eventually rejected that scenario. At the 2024 trial, jurors found that Jacques Roemers had killed his wife and attempted to make the death look accidental.

Ghislaine Thissen and the farm

Ghislaine Thissen was in her early sixties and worked on the dairy farm in Gemmenich, a village in the municipality of Plombières near Belgium's borders with Germany and the Netherlands. She and Jacques Roemers had been married for decades and had three children.

Evidence heard at trial described an unequal and troubled relationship. Family members and witnesses spoke about years of controlling behavior, humiliation and episodes of violence. Those accounts helped provide context, but the murder conviction did not rest on character evidence alone: the jury also considered forensic findings, the physical scene and the timing of Roemers's accident narrative.

November 17, 2020

On November 17, 2020, Ghislaine was found dead inside a metal milk tank at the farm. Roemers told investigators that he believed she had suffered an accident while cleaning the tank and had drowned after water entered it.

Police and medical investigators treated the death as suspicious. The core question became whether the physical evidence could fit the accidental drowning described by Roemers.

The forensic evidence

Forensic specialists who testified during the later assize trial said Ghislaine had died from asphyxiation rather than drowning. They also documented injuries consistent with external violence.

Investigators examined how the tank filled with water and reconstructed the period during which Roemers said he had been away. According to evidence reported from the trial, the minimum time needed for the tank to fill exceeded the maximum period in which his account allowed him to be absent. The prosecution argued that this timing evidence further undermined the accident scenario.

A staged accident theory

Roemers continued to deny killing his wife. His lawyers argued that being a difficult or violent spouse did not itself prove murder and asked the jury to accept the possibility of an accident.

The jury did not accept that defense. It concluded that Roemers had asphyxiated Ghislaine and then tried to make the death appear to have resulted from an accident in the tank. This distinction is important: the staged-accident finding is the adjudicated conclusion of the assize jury, not an editorial inference added by this site.

Verdict and sentence

On February 21, 2024, the Liège Court of Assizes found Jacques Roemers guilty of murdering Ghislaine Thissen. The court imposed a sentence of 30 years' imprisonment, matching the sentence requested by the prosecution.

Roemers had been appearing at trial under electronic monitoring. After the verdict and sentence, he was taken into custody.

Later status

In December 2025, Belgian reporting stated that Roemers died while incarcerated at the semi-open prison in Saint-Hubert after an accident involving a bull at the prison's agricultural facility. His death ended his service of the 30-year sentence, but it does not alter the assize court's 2024 murder judgment.

Timeline

1. November 17, 2020
   Ghislaine is found dead

   Her body is discovered inside a milk tank at the couple's dairy farm in Gemmenich. The death is investigated as suspicious.

2. 2020–2023
   Forensic and criminal investigation

   Investigators examine the tank, the timing of the alleged accident, forensic evidence and witness accounts concerning the household.

3. February 12, 2024
   Assize trial begins

   Jacques Roemers goes on trial in Liège and continues to deny responsibility.

4. February 21, 2024
   Murder conviction

   The jury finds Roemers guilty of murdering Ghislaine Thissen and rejecting the accidental-death account.

5. February 21, 2024
   Thirty-year sentence

   The Liège assize court sentences Roemers to 30 years in prison.

6. December 2025
   Roemers dies in custody

   Belgian media report that he dies following an accident at the agricultural facility of the Saint-Hubert prison.

Current status

Solved / adjudicated. Jacques Roemers was convicted of the murder of Ghislaine Thissen and sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment in February 2024. He died while incarcerated in December 2025.