Some 173 crimes for which justice is seized have never been elucidated in France, according to the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti. But, with the progress of science and the opening of a dedicated national centre, certain “cold case” files have been reopened.
If 173 crimes for which justice is seized have never been elucidated in France according to the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti, hundreds of other files are still waiting to be studied by the national pole dedicated to “cold cases”, created in March 2022.
Here are ten court cases that have never been elucidated despite some media hype.
Dupont de Ligonnès case
Is Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès dead or alive? More than ten years after the discovery of the bodies of his wife and his four children buried under the terrace of their house, the mystery remains whole around the “killings of Nantes”, considered as one of the greatest criminal enigmas of these last years.
In April 2011, a couple and their children aged 13 to 21 had not given any signs of life for several days when the prosecution opened an investigation into a worrying disappearance. The investigators had subsequently found, wrapped in sheets and covered with lime, the bodies of Benoît, Anne, Thomas, Arthur and Agnès, shot dead with at least two bullets each fired in the head.
Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, suspected of being the author of this killing, since not being one of the victims, has since completely disappeared. He was last seen on April 15, 2011, walking away from Formula 1 Roquebrune-sur-Argens with a bag on his back.
Gregory Villemin case
The body of Grégory Villemin, 4, was discovered in Vologne (Vosges), feet and hands bound, on October 16, 1984. Against the backdrop of family jealousies illustrated by anonymous messages from a mysterious “crow”, the investigators s were directed at the time to Bernard Laroche, a cousin of the father.
Charged with murder and imprisoned, the latter had been released but killed by the father, Jean-Marie Villemin. Then the mother, Christine Villemin, was prosecuted in turn before being cleared. In recent years, justice, which suspects a “collective” act, is now interested in a great-uncle and a great-aunt of Grégory, as well as Murielle Bolle, sister-in-law of Bernard Laroche. New DNA expertise has recently been authorized.
Estelle Mouzin case
On January 9, 2003, Estelle Mouzin, 9, disappeared in Guermantes (Seine-et-Marne), on her way home from school. His portrait had been plastered all over France and the area raked. It took three more years for the case, after several false leads, to be linked to that of Michel Fourniret, a famous serial killer.
At the beginning of March 2020, despite an unsuccessful DNA expertise, Michel Fourniret admitted to being responsible for the death of the girl, before retracting. It is his companion and accomplice, Monique Olivier who will recognize the couple’s guilt in the murder of Estelle Mouzin in 2021. Some ten excavation campaigns have since been carried out in the Ardennes, without ever finding the girl’s body.
Delphine Jubillar case
Since June 18, 2021, Cédric Jubillar has been indicted for the murder of his wife, Delphine, a nurse from Cagnac-les-Mines who disappeared on the night of December 15 to 16, 2020 from the marital home.
If the culprit seems obvious given a bundle of consistent clues in the case, the body of his companion has never been found, and he has never admitted any responsibility for her disappearance. So the mystery remains.
Chevaline murder case
On September 5, 2012, a 50-year-old Briton of Iraqi origin, Saad al-Hilli, his wife and his mother-in-law were found dead, with several bullets in the head, in their car on a country road near Chevaline. , not far from Lake Annecy. A young girl from the couple was seriously injured, while her little sister was found unharmed, curled up under her mother’s legs. A local cyclist, a probable collateral victim, was also killed.
Saad al-Hilli’s older brother, who was in conflict with him over the paternal inheritance, was taken into police custody on June 24, 2013 in the United Kingdom, then under judicial supervision until January 2014. the al-Hilli family, some think it could be a murder linked to industrial espionage (Saad was an engineer specializing in satellites). The track of a motorcyclist seen near the scene of the crime has since been ruled out.
Malik Boutvillain case
On May 6, 2012, Malik Boutvillain, 32, left in a t-shirt, shorts and sneakers for his morning jog, in Echirolles (Isère). Left without his identity papers, he will never return. Being of age, an investigation had been slow to be opened without any research being done to find him.
Qualified as a botched investigation by the mother and sister of the disappeared, it took until 2017 for the case to be truly investigated, the year during which the name of Nordahl Lelandais emerged in Isère, the alleged murderer of a young girl. The criminal track is now privileged, but without body or clue and with a dismissal for the case, the case has never been elucidated.
Stéphane Kameugne case
The facts date back to December 24, 2008, when the body of a Cameroonian student was fished out of a canal from Châlons-en-Champagne to Reims. Stéphane Kameugne, 24, disappeared on December 7, after a gala evening at the National School of Arts and Crafts (ENSAM) where he was celebrating his diploma with his classmates.
The thesis of the accident was first favored, before an expert report established that a thoracic trauma revealed by the autopsy was compatible with a percussion by a vehicle. In early 2009, the investigating judge reclassified the case as “manslaughter”. The victim’s father, Samuel Kameugne, continues to fight for light to be shed on this case, in particular wishing that the file be transferred to the Nanterre court, for the “cold cases” pole.
Ramatuelle case
Mid-June and early August 2005, three brothers and sister aged 16 to 20 disappeared in Ramatuelle in the Var. Their father, Dominique Thirard, 43, a former butcher on disability following an accident at work and suffering from a serious illness, committed suicide at the end of September in Woincourt (Somme).
In a letter to his wife who had left the marital home, he had written to her that she would not see “the children again” who “have gone very far”. More than three years after the disappearance, the prosecutor of the Republic of Draguignan decided in September 2008 the “classification without follow-up of the file”. The siblings having never been found and the suspected father being disabled, the case could never be elucidated.
Silja Trindler case
On August 5, 2000, a tourist discovered the lifeless body of a young woman in the dunes of Carcans-Plages in Gironde. The victim, Silja Trindler is of Swiss nationality and was 18 years old, found roughly buried in the sand.
Coming to spend the summer holidays with her family at a nearby campsite, the young woman was strangled. While investigators managed to recover DNA under his fingernails, despite more than 2,500 tests, the killer was never identified.
Godard case
Doctor Yves Godard, 44, acupuncturist in Caen (Calvados), his wife Marie-France and their two children aged 4 and 6 left the port of Saint-Malo on September 1, 1999 for a cruise, never to reappear. Significant traces of the wife’s blood had been found at the family home in Tilly-sur-Seulles (Calvados).
While Yves Godard was wanted for intentional homicide, his presence with his children had been reported on the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and as far as South Africa. But a piece of his daughter’s skull and the doctor’s bones were found off Brittany in 2000 and 2006.
Justice pronounced a dismissal in September 2012. Marital dispute that turned mad, suicide in disguise to escape financial worries, assassination against the backdrop of tax havens… The hypotheses remain open.
2023-05-14 06:15:14
#Miscellaneous #facts #France #media #court #cases #elucidated
