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Help from the Church. The Bishop of Liege, one witness testified, had himself arranged for Anneke to be hidden (under an assumed name). Another witness revealed that Anneke had been baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. Anna's foster mother, said the district attorney, "could have expected guidance from the Church in this affair, but the guidance was not forthcoming." Instead, she got "concrete help" in abducting Anneke from the ex-priest who also helped kidnap Betty and from two mother superiors.
Last week the sentences were passed. For the ex-priest, four months in prison; for the mother superior of a Dutch convent school where Anneke had once stayed, six months (the other mother superior was acquitted); for Elizabeth Van Moorst. a year; for her sister Geertruida, eight months. But Elizabeth and Geertruida were nowhere to be found. And Anneke Beekman is still missing.