Suicide or murder? Doubt hangs more and more over the death of Florian Géraud, a 43-year-old from Ariège, found hanged in an abandoned building in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, three days after his disappearance during New Year’s Eve . The Toulouse public prosecutor’s office announced this Thursday that a judicial investigation for “murder” had been opened. It comes after a complaint from the family of this professional videographer, filed in Massat, in Ariège, where he was from. It will be up to “the designated investigating judge to continue the investigation following a letter rogatory or request for mutual assistance in Paraguay”, specifies the prosecution.
In Asunción, the justice system indicated on Monday “not to exclude any hypothesis” on the causes of his death. The full results of the autopsy “are not yet available. It could take up to 45 days. Data extraction from the phone and other procedures are still ongoing. The investigation continues,” said Paraguayan prosecutor Carla Rojas.
Last WhatsApp connection at 4:44 a.m. on New Year’s Day
The disappearance of Florian Géraud was reported to the police by his Paraguayan host, with whom he had been staying since his arrival in the country in mid-December. At the end of New Year’s Eve, Florian Géraud would have gone out alone in Asunción, his phone showing a last connection to WhatsApp at 4:44 a.m. According to the Paraguayan prosecutor’s office, his death was “the result of mechanical asphyxiation”, a priori consistent with the hypothesis of hanging.
Initially, the deputy police chief in charge of homicides, Commissioner David Delgado, indicated that the videographer’s body “did not show any trace of prior violence”, as did the site where the body was found. , more than five kilometers from his friend’s home. But the family does not believe in the suicide hypothesis.