Belgium's biggest murder mystery case set to remain cold forever

It is a murder mystery that gripped Belgium for decades and now, with the closure of the file on June 28, it will likely remain a cold case forever.

Known as the Mad Killers of Brabant, a gang went on a murderous rampage between 1982 and 1985, killing 28 people including children in a series of supermarket robberies.

Outlandish theories have been offered to explain who was behind what local media called Belgium's "biggest criminal mystery" of the last century. One thesis was that it was a bid to destabilise the state by current or former law enforcement officers close to the far right.

Yet the case was never cracked.

No one has ever been convicted despite multiple overlapping investigations, countless fingerprint and DNA searches, dozens of exhumations and even arrests leading to charges. On June 28, prosecutors finally gathered together the families of victims - still living without answers many years on to let them know the case was being closed for good.