Geneviève Lhermitte (16 November 1966 – 28 February 2023) was a Belgian woman who killed all five of her children on 28 February 2007. She killed each of her children by slitting their throats with a kitchen knife stolen from a local grocery store while her husband was visiting family in Morocco. After Lhermitte killed her children, she then tried to kill herself. The suicide attempt failed, and Lhermitte was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder. She was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment, and in 2023 she was voluntarily euthanized while incarcerated.
Lhermitte had regularly seen a psychiatrist and was reported to be seriously mentally ill. She claimed that she was driven to kill her children due to troubles at home (namely, living with an outsider who financially supported the family).
Personal life
Geneviève Lhermitte was born on 16 November 1966, in Brussels, to Michel Lhermitte, a businessman and student, and Marina Schoevaert, a nurse. Lhermitte had two younger sisters: Catherine born in 1969, and Mireille born in 1972. Though she struggled with her coursework and self-confidence during her secondary studies, Lhermitte graduated in 1991 with a diploma in French and History from the Educational Institute of Social Promotion of the French Community (IEPSCF) in Uccle. It was during the 1988–1989 year at IEPSCF that Lhermitte met her future husband, Bouchaib Moqadem, who was studying mathematics and physics but did not complete his studies.
Lhermitte and Moqadem married on 22 September 1990 and moved into the apartment of physician Michel Schaar, with whom Moqadem was residing. Schaar had befriended Moqadem's family in Morocco in the 1980s and served as the young man's host in Belgium, and Moqadem considered Schaar as an adoptive father. While Moqadem worked at a convenience store, it was Schaar that was the primary financial provider. Lhermitte did not object to living with Schaar in his apartment as she thought it would be on a temporary basis.
In 1991, Lhermitte was hired as a teacher. Shortly after beginning her new career, Lhermitte gave birth to her first child, Yasmine (b. 13 August 1992). Three years later, she delivered her second child, Nora (b. 13 February 1995). From 1 June 1995 to 31 August 1996 Lhermitte was granted leave from her teaching position due to postpartum depression. After the birth of Lhermitte's first child Yasmin, Schaar purchased a house for himself and the couple to live in, and he dedicated his apartment to his practice. In 1996, Schaar hired Moqadem to serve as his filing assistant part-time, then full-time in 1998. During this period, Schaar still covered most expenses, including vacations, house repairs, monthly allowances, and life insurance for each family member. Lhermitte gave birth to two more daughters, Miriam (b. 20 April 1997) and Mina (20 May 1999), before the family's move from Brussels to the provincial town of Nivelles. Schaar paid the mortgage and lived on the second floor.
Tensions began rising between Lhermitte and her husband. Moqadem would spend long hours away from home, becoming a regular at a bar and a spa. In addition, he would take several trips each year to visit his family in Marrakesh, with the length of each trip ranging from a week to a month. Lhermitte's first son and fifth child, Mehdi, was born on 9 August 2003. The following year, Schaar recommended that Lhermitte should see a psychiatrist and she began consulting the psychiatrist Diderick Veldekens in 2005.
Crime
On 28 February 2007 Moqadem was expected to return from a trip to Morocco to visit his family. Lhermitte took her oldest daughter Yasmin to a dermatology appointment. After picking up the rest of her children from school and preparing lunch for them, Lhermitte heard a voice tell her, "the machine is running." Lhermitte mailed two letters: a letter with jewelry for her sisters, and the other letter to her friend Valerie. In the letter to Valerie, she called Michel Schaar "a rotten bastard" who "stole" the intimacy between herself, her husband, and her children. She also accused her husband of being "deaf" and "blind" to her concerns regarding Schaar. After mailing the letters, she went to a grocery store and slipped two knives into her shopping bag.