In Plaine (Bas-Rhin),
Drawings, stuffed animals and letters hung on a tree… Not just any place: it is on this departmental road 350, between the hamlet of Champenay and Saint-Blaise-la-Roche (Bas-Rhin) that Lina was seen for the last time. It was September 23, precisely around 11:15 a.m.
The 15-year-old girl was then walking towards the nearby station from her home. A journey of around 3 kilometers which she was accustomed to and which has since been the subject of numerous checks. From his relatives, from investigators, from citizens too, when several beats had been organized. The excitement was then at its height in the face of this mysterious disappearance.
Four months later, the place has regained its calm. The most usual one in these corners of the Bruche valley, between Vosges and Alsace. A mid-mountain territory with often scattered habitat, decorated with numerous forests. Green in spring, sadder once the leaves have fallen. This end of December is no exception and the gray sky doesn’t help matters.
What remains of the “Lina affair” four months ago, the facts? Bad idea to ask this question to the first and only walker encountered on the famous path. “I’ve only lived here for two months, I can’t tell you,” replies the retiree politely, barely in the know. An exception because the young girl is still on many minds. You just need to get closer to your home to see it.
“We think about it all the time,” confides Lucie, a neighbor only a few hundred meters away. “We tinker, we live but we still feel that there is something wrong: it’s Lina. It’s as if a pall of sadness had fallen over the village. » Who cares about its inhabitants but also changes their habits. “I tell myself that it could have been my daughter so we are careful,” continues the mother. “Before, I left everything open at home but today, I close it. »
“Obligated to be touched by this whole story”
Ludivine also adopted this reflex a little further. “If the children ask me to go cycling on the road, I tell them no now,” explains the rider. “Frankly, we have to be touched by this whole story. We think it only happens on TV but not at all… It’s crazy that with all the means that exist, we can disappear like that in 2023.”
Without leaving any really exploitable traces since the start of the research. Between his phone which stops blocking the path, the dogs which lose his scent… The investigators have multiplied the leads since the beginning, with searches of vehicles, sealing of houses etc. In vain so far. “They were still there last week and went door to door,” remembers Jean-Louis, the mechanic from Saint-Blaise-la-Roche, recalling all the scenarios imagined since September 23. “Everything has been said a bit and now we don’t talk about it too much,” he adds. “It’s not that we forget, but we speak as soon as there is a twist. But today, there is nothing concrete. »
Even at the village grocery store, where Lina sometimes worked, the subject is no longer really discussed. “A few customers ask me if I know anything since we knew her but that’s all, it has calmed down,” breathes Morgane, not bothered that the surroundings have regained a certain tranquility. “Between the beats, the journalists, the gendarmes, it wasn’t easy. There were people everywhere. »
Not at all today. The cycle path searched by nearly 400 volunteers at the end of September has regained winter attendance and the electrical work has progressed well on the site near the Saint-Blaise-la-Roche station. Where, again, no mark of Lina’s disappearance is visible. “We think about it but people don’t know what to say anymore so we don’t talk about it too much anymore, it avoids saying stupid things,” concludes the baker.