It was just a month ago, last Saturday September 23 in Bas-Rhin. On a sunny day, Lina, 15, an uneventful teenager studying in CAP “personal assistance” and recently doing an internship in a convenience store, disappeared. The teenager was walking to the station in Saint-Blaise-la-Roche, a very small town in the Vosges massif, to take a train towards Strasbourg. Lina was supposed to travel less than three kilometers from home, a journey she was accustomed to making on foot. Since then, mystery. Despite citizen raids, extensive searches by the gendarmes of the Strasbourg research section, analyzes of video surveillance images, testimonies, hearings, nothing. Lina vanished.
After a first week of blatant investigation for “disturbing disappearance” led by the Saverne public prosecutor’s office, the investigation returned to the Strasbourg public prosecutor’s office which opened, on October 2, a “judicial investigation against X for kidnapping and sequestration not followed by ‘voluntary release before the seventh day’. The investigation entered a new phase with the appointment of two investigating magistrates in charge of the case. A prosecution which therefore underlined, “that no charge against anyone”, no avenue was “neither ruled out nor favored”. Since October 2, the prosecution, which suggested that the investigations would be long-term, has never communicated again
“officially” about the investigation.
Some certainties and sometimes disconcerting testimonies
Today, what we know with certainty, from the start of the investigation, ultimately boils down to very little. Enough to further strengthen the mystery surrounding this disappearance today and leave the inhabitants of the Bruche valley in anguish and suspicion. We know, for example, that the young girl did not take the train to Strasbourg, the cameras bear witness to this. Or even that his phone was blocked for the last time at 11:22 a.m. A few minutes before, Lina would have sent a short video of herself walking on the road to Tao, her boyfriend who was waiting for her in Strasbourg.
Other certainties, two witnesses very quickly reported having seen the young girl, in particular the former mayor of the town who passed her just a few minutes before her disappearance on the RD350 road, a road that the young girl must have taken. A week later, a third man gave an unexpected testimony, relayed in the media, explaining that he had “seen her passing in a small blue car” driven by a man of whom he only saw the lower part of the face having “a goatee”. . The young woman would have said “hello in passing,” added this resident of the same hamlet as the teenager. Problem: the vehicle seen was traveling in the opposite direction to the direction initially taken by Lina who was supposed to go to the station. Another important testimony, that of the father of another 15-year-old girl, also living in Plaine, who reported the presence of a man, in a gray car, who allegedly bothered his daughter on two occasions. He would have scared her to the point of making her flee, two days before Lina’s disappearance.
Since then, investigators have established a chronological timeline of events in order to cross-reference the elements of the testimonies collected. Elements which confirm that Lina would have disappeared in just a few minutes. Was she kidnapped? Or did she get into an acquaintance’s vehicle?
Searches without follow-up?
After intense and unsuccessful searches in the Plaine region, searches of houses, particularly one in a village whose owner had been questioned, did not, it seems, provide any conclusive evidence. allowing us to significantly advance the investigation. No communication has been made by the prosecution concerning the results of these investigations, nor those concerning several blue cars which were carried out in different municipalities in and around Plaine.
Studying Boyfriend’s Phone
Last element, the loss of the phone of Tao, Lina’s boyfriend, revealed by our colleagues at New detective. Lost during a search in an abandoned garage the day after the young girl’s disappearance, and found a week later by the police. A loss which animated social networks for a long time, the telephone being able to provide investigators with valuable information. Fifteen days later, no element of what this famous phone contains has been communicated. Total silence.
To date, no arrests have been made and information on the progress of the case remains rare. A silence which probably contributes to the proliferation of rumors, each more astonishing than the last, on social networks. Requested by 20 minutes this Monday, October 23, the prosecution indicates that there is no communication planned on the case. After a month, the only certainty that has already been verified is that the investigation promises to be long… and discreet.