Rasti Rostelli

Rasti Rostelli was a hypnotist whose stage show preceded the kidnapping of An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks by Marc Dutroux. On the evening of the kidnapping, An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks attended a Rostelli hypnosis show in Blankenberge, Belgium on the coast in August 1995. Both girls were hypnotised on stage at a casino during Rostelli's performance. Rostelli put the two girls under hypnosis for almost two hours on stage. The similarly hypnotized friends of the victims said it took them hours to fully recover from the hypnosis.¹

Father Marchal, father of An Marchal, initially insisted on Rostelli coming as a witness because he thought the girls had been lured by Dutroux while still under the influence of hypnosis. The performance was recorded on video and described in a Dutch magazine article critical of Rostelli's techniques. The article described how Rostelli told Eefje Lambrecks she would feel everything he did with a doll in her body, then struck the head of a rag doll with a hammer while she was under hypnosis. An Marchal was described as running away screaming and having to be brought back by an assistant. After the show, security video footage recorded An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks wandering around the casino in a daze. The same night they fell into the hands of Marc Dutroux.¹

The X-Dossier states Dutroux hypnotised a girl he raped in 1994, and an item marked "hypnosis equipment" was seized from the house where he kept An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks for two weeks prior to their murder. The connection between Rostelli's hypnosis performance and Dutroux's ability to control the girls remains a point of investigation in the case.¹