Guy Joao, the man arrested by mistake in October 2019, has died

Guy Joao, the man who had found himself in the heart of the news despite himself and especially arrested by mistake two and a half years ago, confused with Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, died on Monday. The 71-year-old retiree died of a long illness, we learned from his relatives, confirming information from M6.

On October 11, 2019, the whole of France is holding its breath. Glasgow police in Scotland have just announced to their French counterparts that they have identified Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, the most wanted man in the country, suspected of having murdered his wife and four children in 2011. After an arrest on his arrival in France, long hours of waiting and multiple press articles, the sentence fell: it was absolutely not Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. Extensive DNA analyzes show that the man is Guy Joao, a simple retiree.

Placed in cell for twenty-six hours

This former Renault worker was denounced on “Crime Stoppers”, a website that receives reports from anonymous citizens, for a reason that investigators still do not explain. Scottish police at the time assured their French counterparts that the man was betrayed by his fingerprints. Arrested when he got off the plane at Roissy, Guy Joao was placed in cell for twenty-six hours.

His photo and address are sent to Nanterre, at the headquarters of the DCPJ. Already, investigators notice that the man does not “resemble either near or far” to Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, as a police source told us at the time. In addition, the search of his home in the Yvelines, in Limay, “begins to raise doubts”, recalls 20 minutes a good connoisseur of the file. Guy Joao’s neighbors swear to the police present that they are on the wrong track.

The day after the arrest, in the middle of the day, DNA analyzes carried out by French justice experts on the man arrested in Glasgow show that it was not Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. End of the ordeal for Guy Joao.