“A sordid story between schoolchildren”: investigators are trying to clarify the circumstances of the death of Alisha, 14, violently beaten then thrown into the Seine on Monday in Argenteuil. The suspects, two 15-year-old teenagers, were arrested and taken into custody. In the school and family circle of the young victim, emotional reactions have multiplied since her death. Back to the drama.
Found in the Seine after being beaten up
It was Monday evening, around 8 p.m., that Alisha’s mother reported her daughter’s disappearance. A few minutes earlier, around 7:30 p.m., another mother went to the Argenteuil police station. According to the public prosecutor of Pontoise, she explained to the police that her 15-year-old son had returned home with his girlfriend at the end of the afternoon. He reportedly told her that they had just hit a young girl. According to the teenager, she would then have fallen into the Seine. The boy also told his mother where the incident allegedly took place.
Investigators then went to the site, under the A15 bridge in Argenteuil, where Alisha’s body was found around 9 p.m., floating in the Seine. The prosecution said it was submerged in a meter of water, 4.50 m from the bank and 7 m from the concrete pontoon located high.
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Examination of the victim’s body revealed that she had been severely beaten in the head and face. An autopsy must now determine the causes of death: beatings, or drowning.
Two 15-year-olds taken into police custody, an investigation
Two suspects, a 15-year-old teenager and his girlfriend, were arrested overnight Monday to Tuesday, around 2 a.m., and taken into police custody. The police were able to arrest them thanks to information from the boy’s mother, to whom her son had detailed the facts and who then gave the alert.
Before going to find the police, the mother of the young suspect also found bloody clothes in her son’s room. “He told me the thing, but I couldn’t believe it,” she told BFMTV. “He’s a big teddy bear, but since September, since he met his girlfriend, he’s not the same,” she adds of her son.
An assassination investigation was opened by the Pontoise prosecutor’s office. The three teenagers had no known criminal history.
Investigations are still ongoing to try to determine the origin of the dispute between the minors and the exact circumstances of Alisha’s death.
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Alisha, victim of school bullying
The victim and the two adolescents placed in police custody attended the same school: the private professional high school, Cognacq-Jay, in Argenteuil. According to Alisha’s family and classmates, Alisha was the victim of harassment by the two accused teenagers.
In particular, the suspect allegedly hacked Alisha’s Snapchat account and, along with his girlfriend, he allegedly disclosed photos of the victim in her underwear to other students at the establishment.
The victim “spoke to me, she told me she was being harassed. I saw her fight with the one who was harassing her in front of the bathroom” last week. “It’s shocking, she had her whole life ahead of her,” explains a student.
Death threats
Worse, just before winter break, Alisha reportedly received death threats from the boy. “My daughter told me that she was threatened with death by this boy and this girl”, explains Jenny Khalid, Alisha’s mother, at the microphone of BFMTV. In February, she then makes a report for harassment. He is advised to file a complaint, according to franceinfo, which quotes a source from National Education.
The 15-year-old was then dismissed from the establishment as a precaution pending a disciplinary council, which was to be held on Tuesday. And that never happened. Monday, before the death of Alisha, a fight between the victim and the girlfriend of the teenager would have also broken out in high school.
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???? “My daughter told me that she was threatened with death by this boy and this girl”
The mother of the drowned teenager in Argenteuil testifies pic.twitter.com/RgbtFTQbc8
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) 9 mars 2021
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According to the boy’s mother, their dispute is also linked to a love triangle. “Apparently my son would have had a little relationship with her before he was with the new one so I think it’s a love triangle that couldn’t handle it,” she tells BFMTV. “There is a story of jealousy between the two girls and, in the middle, the young man, who participated in this,” adds a source close to the investigation. Parisian.
“She was a good girl”
After the news of Alisha’s death, emotional reactions multiplied. Misunderstanding and sadness reigned Tuesday in front of the professional high school Cognacq-Jay, a private establishment in the center of the city of 110,000 inhabitants.
“She was a good girl, a girl who always has a smile,” says a high school friend from Alisha to franceinfo. “But when she came to high school I think she had this fear of running into these people and being harassed again.” “It was my girlfriend, it’s hard to hear that she died”, adds another student to the Parisian.
“We are all extremely affected in the face of this tragedy. At this time, our priority is to provide the best possible support for our students, their families and all staff,” added the director of the establishment, Christine Cadart, to franceinfo.
In a statement, the rectorate of Versailles expressed its “deepest emotion”. To help the staff and students of the establishment to overcome this tragedy, a psychological unit has been set up at the Lycée Cognacq-Jay d’Argenteuil. National Education specifies that it has not had any reports of harassment on the departmental platform provided for this purpose.
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