It will be ten years Thursday that he was no longer seen. Mathis Jouanneau, born in June 2003, was kidnapped by his father on September 2, 2011 in Caen (Calvados). Sylvain Jouanneau has since been arrested but refuses to say where his child is. Much to the despair of Nathalie Barré, Mathis’s mother. Chronology of a never-closed case.
The disappearance of the child
Friday September 2, 2011. Sylvain Jouanneau has to pick up his 8-year-old son for the weekend. He and Nathalie Barré divorced in 2007, and have been fighting for custody of the child ever since. The father, who has visiting and accommodation rights, goes as planned to pick up his son after leaving school at the end of the day.
Sunday September 4, 2011. Sylvain Jouanneau, a former executive turned mason, is supposed to drop Mathis off at 6 p.m. at Nathalie Barré’s, in Mondeville, near Caen. Noticing her delay, the mother begins to worry.
She considers that her ex-husband is mentally unstable, the latter having already made several stays in a psychiatric hospital. At 7 p.m., without any news from Sylvain Jouanneau, she went to the Caen police station. The police think first of a family dispute, and not of a kidnapping.
The persuit
Monday September 5, 2011. An investigation for breach of family obligations and child abduction is open. The father’s phone is geolocated in Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), then in Tarnos (Landes). The device will quickly stop transmitting.
Thursday September 8, 2011. Sylvain Jouanneau’s parents, who live near Caen, receive a letter sent by their son from Bayonne. In the letter, Sylvain Jouanneau admits having kidnapped Mathis.
We will learn later that, the day after the kidnapping, the man made his son believe that his mother and his companion had died in a car accident, and that he should follow him if he did not want to go with his family. reception.
Friday September 9. Investigators found the kidnapper’s camper van in an area dedicated to Villers-Bocage, near Caen. He and Mathis would have stayed there briefly on the evening of September 2. No trace of violence was detected in the vehicle. Mathis’ satchel and his father’s passport were left inside. A search warrant is issued.
Saturday September 10. Sylvain Jouanneau’s car was discovered in Lahonce (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), near a river. The investigators found no trace of violence in the passenger compartment, but got their hands on a receipt from a Norman bookstore.
They then learn that the father has bought three books on teaching the Koran for children. Sylvain Jouanneau actually converted to Islam, and religiously married another woman in Morocco.
End of September to beginning of December 2011. An official call for witnesses is launched to find Mathis and his father. A witness said he saw Sylvain Jouanneau in Lahonce, near the parking lot where he left his car, but alone, a plastic bag in hand. People then saw him in Six-Fours-les-Plages (Var), between October 12 and 14.
Injured in the ankle, the most wanted man in France bought crutches in Boisseron (Gard) on October 17. He stayed in the Gard for several days, sometimes at the abbey of Saint-Gilles, sometimes at the presbytery of Vauvert. He buys food at Combs on December 5 and 6.
Friday December 9, 2011. Sylvain Jouanneau is arrested near Avignon, on the way to Saint Jacques de Compostelle. No trace of Mathis by his side. A letter containing threats and addressed to Nathalie Barré is found on the suspect.
Unsuccessful searches
From December 10, 2011 to June 2015. Mathis’s father was transferred to Caen the day after his arrest. Questioned by the examining magistrate, the man assures us that Nathalie Barré is a bad mother. But he will never say where his son is. He will just concede having entrusted it to third parties abroad.
Sylvain Jouanneau is indicted for subtraction of a minor by ascendant and death threats. He is remanded in custody at Caen remand center. At the same time, the investigation to find Mathis continues. Investigators carry out checks in Switzerland, the Vatican, Sweden, the United States and Morocco. Streams are probed, campsites searched and cult sites inspected. But still no trace of the boy.
More calls for witnesses are made on Spanish and Italian television channels. Psychics offer their help and their claims are verified. Mathis’s mother even comes to promise a reward to whoever finds her son. In vain.
During the investigation, we also learn that Sylvain Jouanneau had already tried to kidnap his son on January 8 and 9, 2011. His partner at the time had finally succeeded in discouraging him and convincing him to return the child. to his mother. The latter had never known what had happened.
The trial
From Monday June 1 to Thursday June 4, 2015. Sylvain Jouanneau is tried before the Assize Court of Calvados for kidnapping and forcible confinement. He remains walled in his silence, and only tells of having entrusted Mathis to his “Muslim brothers”.
Some expert psychologists evoke Medea’s syndrome. In other words, they consider that the accused wanted to take revenge on his ex-wife by attacking their son. At the end of the trial, Sylvain Jouanneau was sentenced to 20 years of criminal imprisonment. He is imprisoned at the penitentiary center of Val-de-Reuil (Eure).
Since the trial. The investigation against X for homicide is still open, nothing having made it possible to establish if Mathis is still alive, if he was killed or if he died in an accident. His mother still hopes to find him. She started a support committee and a petition. Nathalie Barré also had two aged portraits of Mathis made, one in July 2015, the other in October 2019.
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She and her lawyer deplore the fact that the investigation is slipping. But according to West France, new acts of investigations have been underway for several weeks. Maybe they will help find the boy’s body. Also according to our colleagues, a new call for witnesses should also be released soon, in the hope of relaunching the investigation.
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