The trial of Nordahl Lelandais, accused of having killed little Maëlys in 2017, opens this Monday before the Grenoble Assize Court. Go back four and a half years.
At the end of August 2017, the leaden screed that fell on Pont-de-Beauvoisin (Isère) stunned the whole of France. While the face of Maëlys de Araujo appears everywhere in Nord-Isère, in Savoie, and on TV screens beyond the two departments, it is a whole country which wonders where the child is.
And a whole country is looking for it. Quickly, two Facebook pages were created to provide support to parents. Very quickly, they collect thousands of “likes”.
One of them even manages to set up a large citizen mobilization, on September 2, 2017, to search for the girl. More than 1,000 people inspect Pont-de-Beauvoisin and the surrounding area in the hope of finding her. We come from Isère, Savoie, but also from the Var, Côte d’Or, Doubs…
On these pages, but everywhere on social networks as well, budding Sherlock Holmes are also flourishing. Sometimes they spend hours arguing about the case, going about their deduction or their opinion on what should have been done. Without having any element. Despite everything, the investigators are forced to watch them out of the corner of their eye, in case one of them has been a little too well informed and can act as a suspect.
Mediums share their “flashes”
Mids are also out. There are the sincere. For example, these twenty-two men and women who come together on a Facebook page to share their “flashes”. The effort is futile, but truly altruistic.
The story is not the same every time. Vultures also prowl. A so-called medium arrives from Portugal to help Maëlys’ parents. But he especially saw the way to extract money from the bereaved family.
Here too, these mediums take up time for the gendarmes. As with social networks, investigators do not want to miss a possible suspicious profile.
The standard of the gendarmerie explodes
Another pebble in the shoes of the investigators: the thousands of calls, of more or less fantastic testimonies received. That must be dissected to be sure not to miss a crucial testimony.
This citizen excitement has even sometimes almost turned into a nightmare for the investigators. Example, September 2, 2017, day of citizen mobilization in Pont-de-Beauvoisin. Law enforcement gives volunteers a number to call in case of a discovery that deserves their attention.
This number is the standard of the local gendarmerie. But by morning it is completely saturated. Indeed, the number came out of the circle of participants in the hunt. Very quickly, mediums and clairvoyants call from all over the country, claiming to have elements on the place where the little one is.
And during this time, some volunteers, on the ground, no longer manage to reach the gendarmes, who must process all the calls, so as not to set aside any leads. That day, half of the calls received were made by people who had no valid information.
Many called in all sincerity, without suspecting the parasitism of their call. This September 2, 2017, in Pont-de-Beauvoisin, hell was more than ever paved with good intentions.
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