Of Françoise Hohmann, his relatives remember a young, petite woman with brown hair and a frank smile. On September 8, 1987, this young 23-year-old commercial, freshly hired part-time at Electrolux, left her home in Illkirch-Graffenstaden (Bas-Rhin) aboard her red Peugeot 205 to complete her tour. She begins by presenting her vacuum cleaners to the high-rise apartments before ending her day with a certain Jean-Marc Reiser. Then 27 years old, he was the last person to see her alive. Françoise never reappeared. And since then, the case has been lost in the limbo of the “cold-cases”. “Justice has not seriously treated the case, there has been laxity,” sighs Fanny, the niece of the disappeared.
Thirty-two years later, the Strasbourg public prosecutor’s office announced on Monday the relaunch of investigations in the context of two judicial inquiries opened for “arbitrary criminal confinement” and “concealment of a corpse”. Carefully chosen criminal qualifications. Because it is indeed Jean-Marc Reiser, indicted since in the Sophie Le Tan case, which is targeted.
However, the now fifty-something, with a very mysterious personality, had already been tried at the assizes for the disappearance of the commercial in 2001 since he was the last witness. But he had been acquitted by the popular jury, lack of sufficient evidence. And an acquittal is final, as recalled by the Strasbourg prosecutor.
“Reiser had been acquitted for murder, but nothing prevents him from being convicted of other non-prescribed offenses,” said Thierry Moser, lawyer for the Hohmann family. We are going to corner him by this legal string. We very clearly suspect him of having made Françoise disappear. An interpretation which will undoubtedly endeavor to dismantle the defense – which could not be attached.
“I don’t expect any confession from him”
In support of the relaunch of the investigations, the Strasbourg public prosecutor evokes “new charges”. These are in fact disturbing similarities between the Françoise Hohmann case and the Sophie Le Tan case. Arrested in September in 2018 and then imprisoned, Jean-Marc Reiser, then enrolled in Byzantine archeology at the university, is suspected of having ambushed the student of Vietnamese origin by filing a false rental announcement apartment.
It was on her way to visit Schiltigheim that the young woman had evaporated. “I am divided between the relief to see the investigation into the disappearance of my aunt revived and the anger to find that it took Sophie to pay with her life for justice to take an interest in Reiser again, sighs the niece by Françoise Hohmann. I do not expect any confession from him. I just want justice to be done for Françoise. “
The investigation into the disappearance of the young business representative has known many failures. At the time, Françoise Hohmann’s 205 was discovered a few days later in the center of Strasbourg, but there were no personal effects or vacuum cleaners there. The only disturbing point is that the driver’s seat is moved back to suggest that the vehicle has been moved by a man.
Françoise’s body has never been found
The investigators will focus on the family track. They are interested in the young woman’s companion – deceased since 2009 – since their couple is struggling. Explore the thesis of a romantic fugue … It was only in 1997, ten years after the facts, that the Jean-Marc Reiser track became thicker thanks to a routine check by customs officials in Gironde . They discover, in the suspect’s trunk, vials of GHB – a drug used by rapists -, ropes and photos of sleeping women in pornographic poses. Overwhelming certainly, but nothing that formally links to the disappearance of Françoise. However, he was indicted the following year and then acquitted in 2001.
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