Belgium police hope old photo will lead to 1980s 'Brabant Killers'

June 16 (UPI) -- Belgian police released a photo on Tuesday they hope will help crack a cold case in which nearly 30 people were killed during a crime spree in the 1980s.

A judge ordered that the photo of an unidentified man holding a gun and standing in a forest, which was sent anonymously to police decades ago, be released in a new attempt to catch the "Brabant Killers."

Authorities say the man in the photo is wanted for questioning. He's pictured with a semiautomatic SPAS-12 shotgun that was made by Italian firearms company Franchi.

Police say the Brabant Killers committed a series of robberies between 1982 and 1985, during which they killed 28 people and injured 40.

The statute of limitations in the case expires in 2025, prosecutors say.

"The person who gave this photo said that the individual who is on this photo is a very important person in the Brabant Killers case," said Eric Van Duyse, a spokesman for Belgium's federal prosecutor's office. "Investigators' efforts [to identify the man] since then have come to nothing.

"But since the file was started from scratch, the decision was made to call the public to try to finally find this individual because it is potentially interesting. This is another step in the investigation."

Investigators believe the gang included three men who wore face paint. They are known as "the Giant," "the Killer," and "the Old Man."

Police also want to find another suspect involved in one of the raids, at a Brussels-area supermarket in 1983. Authorities said he is over 6 feet tall and has a wine stain birthmark on the nape of his neck.