According to the Ominous Origins podcast, the coroner who examined the body determined that Jeanne Van Calck died by choking on her own vomit after being forced to drink a lot of alcohol. She had also suffered violent abuse before her death, which occurred between 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. The coroner believed that the murder had been committed by someone with professional knowledge of how to carry out an amputation, like a doctor or a butcher.

The police searched for the girl’s legs, including by dragging local canals. On February 16, a gardener at the former royal park of Stuyvenberg found two wrapped packages, each about 16 inches long. These were Van Calck’s legs. Her boots had been found nearby the day before. Continuing the search for the killer, the police gave one of their dogs Van Calck’s scent and sent her out looking. The dog stopped at 22 Rue des Hirondelles and outside Van Calck’s grandparents’ home, where she also barked for a long time. This didn’t turn up any leads, nor did the reward of 20,000 Belgian francs offered by the government for information about the killer.