Tabloid headlines in their native Belgium dubbed them THE DIABOLICAL LOVERS. In America they might have been called the Honeymoon Killers. Aurore Martin and Peter Uwe Schmitt allegedly found lonely singles, married them and then murdered them in order to collect the insurance money. Belgian authorities had been hunting the couple for months. Last week FBI agents arrested them in Miami, where they had spent their loot on an oceanfront condo and the Florida high life.
Schmitt, 27, and Martin, 28, met at an indoor rock-climbing center in 1991. A year later, Schmitt married 20-year-old Ursula Dechamps. After five months, the couple's car plunged off a ramp into a canal; he escaped unhurt, but his wife's body washed up three days later. Schmitt collected $472,000 from her life insurance policy and headed off to Florida with Martin. Three years later, when their money ran out, authorities say the couple returned to Belgium, where Martin met a homely financial consultant through a personal ad. They married quickly, but on their honeymoon in Corsica their car toppled over a cliff. Martin was only slightly injured while her husband died--giving her an $800,000 insurance windfall.
Pressed by family members, police exhumed the body of Martin's husband and found evidence that he had been beaten to death. Then, reopening the case of Schmitt's wife, the cops concluded that he had drowned her in the bathtub before taking her in the car. According to an arrest affidavit, Martin has confessed to both crimes. When nabbed, the couple were making hasty preparations to leave town. Martin reportedly said they were about to contact a "matrimonial agency" in search of their next victim.
--By Tammerlin Drummond. Reported by Catherine Kotschoubey/Brussels