Between August 27, 2017, the day Maëlys was kidnapped, and February 14, 2018, the date Nordahl Lelandais confessed, six months passed. Six months during which the former dog handler, the main suspect of the investigators, nevertheless denied in block. Deeply convinced of his involvement from the start of the case, the gendarmes carried out meticulous investigations. Tirelessly. Until confusing him by providing irrefutable proof. While the trial of Nordahl Lelandais for the murder of Maëlys opens this Monday before the Assize Court of Isère in Grenoble, 20 minutes trace the chronology of events.
August 27, 2017, the day of the disappearance
On Saturday August 26, the family of Araujo, who resides in the Jura, goes to Pont-de-Beauvoisin (Isère) where the wedding of the first cousin of Maëlys’ mother is celebrated. On Sunday, around 3 a.m., while the party is still in full swing, the latter is worried about not seeing her daughter in the village hall. The little one was however very present a few minutes earlier. She hadn’t even tried to leave the place to go play outside. Very quickly, the DJ makes a call on the microphone to ask the guests if they have not seen the child.
The family and the guests, still present at the wedding, undertake to look for her. They search the smallest corners of the room, scrutinize the boarding school of the neighboring high school, where certain guests slept, and the surroundings. Nothing. The gendarmes are called at 3:57.
An important device is then put in place. The photo of Maëlys is immediately broadcast to the press to launch a call for witnesses while the gendarmes begin to audition the 182 people invited to the wedding, and the 110 others who had been invited to the aperitif. During this time, two dogs of the Saint-Hubert breed smell the trace of the child in the village hall and in the parking lot. Nowhere else. The investigators quickly become convinced that the girl is “boarded a vehicle”.
August 28, 2017, the second hearing of Lelandais and the first suspicions
While the gendarmes search the waters of the surrounding lakes and look for elements by exploiting the images of the CCTV cameras, they summon Nordahl Lelandais again, heard the day before. The name of the “dog man” was mentioned by several witnesses who saw him in conversation with the child.
Two details, and not the least, intrigue the investigators. The first, delivered by the groom. While everyone was on a quest to find Maëlys, Nordahl Lelandais slipped away. Without even bothering to say goodbye to his hosts. Nor to anyone else. Without even getting involved in research. Given the context and the concern aroused by the disappearance of the child, his attitude was “weird”, underlines the groom.
The second comes from images of a car wash where we see Nordahl Lelandais, the same morning (August 28), polishing his car for a very long time from top to bottom. Heard again at 6 p.m., the suspect attests that he is preparing to sell his Audi. Regarding Maëlys, his statements vary. The day before, he had assured that he had never spoken, nor even seen the girl. This time, he finally admits to discussing his dogs with her.
Finally, the medical examination, carried out in the evening after the hearing, revealed “slash type scratches” on the left shoulder, the right hand, the left knee and the inside of the suspect’s right calf.
August 31, 2017, first police custody and searches
The hope of finding the little girl alive is still there. The first study of the telephone lines, used by Nordahl Lelandais, highlights several of his movements during the wedding evening. Trips during which he cut off his main telephone. Especially between 2:46 a.m. and 3:25 a.m., when Maëlys disappeared. The former soldier is placed in police custody, his home searched. The suspect is unable to indicate where the Bermuda shorts he wore at the wedding are. “Embarrassed” and visibly “stressed”, he will “take a few moments to answer”. He ends up indicating that he threw it in a garbage container at the bottom of his house. The reason ? He was “stained with vomit”. Bad luck for the investigators, the household waste was found the same morning.
September 2, 2017, DNA traces of Maëlys found in the Audi A3
On the night of September 2, the criminal research institute of the national gendarmerie highlights the “mixing” of two DNA traces from a sample taken from “the ignition button of the lights” of Nordahl’s car Lelandais. A few hours later, the expert’s report is formal: it is indeed the DNA of the suspect and that of Maëlys. The next day, the former soldier is taken into custody a second time.
September 3, 2017, the indictment of Lelandais
During his interrogation, Nordahl Lelandais disputes the facts. Faced with the presence of Maëlys’ DNA, he admits that the little girl got into the back of her vehicle to check that her dogs were not there. Perhaps he touched her when helping her down? Which would then explain this DNA trace, he says. He also mentions the presence of a “little blond boy” accompanying him. Only, this child does not exist. A few days later, the gendarmes will have the certainty. At the end of his hearing, the suspect is indicted for “kidnapping, sequestration and arbitrary detention of a 15-year-old minor”.
November 16, 2017, the qualifier of murder retained
In view of the latest elements of the investigation, the public prosecutor of Grenoble issues an additional indictment for “murder preceded by another crime” on the person of Maëlys. Images from CCTV cameras in downtown Pont-de-Beauvoisin spotted Nordahl Lelandais’ vehicle at 2:47 a.m. on the day of the tragedy. Alongside the driver is a “small passenger”, dressed in “a very light outfit with the same characteristics as the white dress worn by Maëlys”. On his return, between 3:56 and 3:57 a.m., only one silhouette stands out: that of Nordahl Lelandais. This time, the investigators have proof that Maëlys was indeed kidnapped during the wedding.
February 8, 2018, a trace of Maëlys’ blood discovered in the trunk of the Audi
Questioned on November 30, 2017, Nordahl Lelandais maintains his denials and claims that the Audi, spotted on CCTV cameras, is not his. Whatever, the investigators do not let go. Determined to catch him, they continue to carefully examine each sample taken from the suspect’s car. A first report was filed on January 15, 2018: Maëlys’ DNA was not found in the vehicle.
The gendarmes will then order an additional expertise, a week later. The IRCGN will take new “more thorough” samples from the areas of the Audi that have been particularly cleaned by Nordahl Lelandais. They will also dismantle the trunk lining. Luck smiles on them: a “brownish” trace analyzed as being “human blood” is discovered under “a trunk lining”. The report falls on February 8: the blood is indeed that of the girl.
February 14, 2018, the confessions and the discovery of the body of Maëlys
Cornered by this last irrefutable proof, Lelandais cracks. “This poor little girl, I killed her involuntarily”, the suspect says, crying. He immediately indicated that he wanted to help the investigators find her, while explaining that that evening he “panicked”. The former soldier was immediately brought to his home where he claimed to have deposited the child’s body “along a shed”, initially. Then to have “moved” it by returning definitively from the wedding. He leads the gendarmes on the heights of the town of Attignat-Oncin, in Savoie, below a path of the Pissoire waterfall.
At the end of the afternoon, the canine brigade discovered “first bones”, nestled in a cavity surrounded by rocks. At the precise location indicated by the suspect. The search continues overnight. After clearing the snow, the investigators come across a hole 80 centimeters long, 40 wide and 30 deep, in which there are “many bones”. Genetic analyses, carried out on a femur, confirm that it is “very strongly” the skeleton of Maëlys.
In the following days, Nordahl Lelandais was hospitalized at his request at Vinatier de Lyon to receive psychiatric care.
March 19, 2018, re-examination
In tears, the indicted maintains having killed “involuntarily” Maëlys. He delivers a version of the facts that leaves the investigators skeptical. According to him, the little girl would have insisted on going to see her dogs at home, after obtaining the approval of her mother. But in the car, she would have started to “whisper”. “There, I had the incomprehensible gesture, I don’t know why”, indicates Lelandais who evokes “a violent blow”. A single punch to the face. Panicked at the sight of the lifeless child, he would have driven to his home to deposit the body near a shed, would have changed, then would have returned to the wedding as if nothing had happened. In a second step, understanding that the girl was indeed dead, he would have taken her to the heights of Attignat-Oncin.
September 21, 2018, overwhelming new expertise
New genetic expertise aimed at determining the causes of Maëlys’ death undermines the accused’s version of the facts. On a piece of absorbent paper found in Nordahl Lelandais’ car, the experts identify traces of the suspect’s sperm. The autopsy reveals multiple fractures of the nose and jaw and lesions on the skull. Finally, the presence of traces of blood, found on the front passenger window, confirms the investigators in their conviction: a single punch in the face could not have killed the child.
After being informed of the result of these expertises, Nordahl Lelandais, stuck, asks to be heard again by the investigators. He changes version and ends up admitting to having struck the child several times. Why did you lie? “The media pressure”, he lets go to clear himself.
September 28, 2018, reenactment
The former soldier is taken from his cell to be taken at night to the various places of the tragedy. The reconstruction will last more than six hours. He then explains to the gendarmes how he exfiltrated Maëlys from the wedding hall to get her on board his vehicle. Then, how he drove by, windows open, in front of several people, posted at the entrance to the village hall. He also reproduces the fatal gestures on a dummy and leads the investigators to his home and to the place where he got rid of the girl’s body.
The qualifier of rape was not retained in the indictment of Nordahl, the gendarmes having been unable to provide irrefutable proof on this subject.