Dedicated to serial or unsolved crimes, the “cold cases” center of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), is not yet a year old. However, he recently obtained the first encouraging results in two sordid cases, several decades old. On October 14, Dominique P., a 70-year-old father, was indicted by examining magistrate Nathalie Turquey for the rape followed by the murder of Sophie Narme, 23, in Paris in 1991. , and for the attempted rape of a young 19-year-old woman, in Seine-et-Marne in 1999. A major step forward which arouses, for the relatives of other victims whose cases are handled by this center, “hope moreover, ”says Corinne Herrmann, a specialist in unresolved cases. “It is, for them, the certainty that this pole has a meaning and that it is a chance, for a file, to be treated by it”, insists the lawyer.
This retiree could never have been worried by the justice if he had not been arrested, in September 2020, in a Leclerc store in Carpentras filming under the skirts of three customers. After his arrest, investigators discovered on the suspect’s computer, seized from his home in Mazan (Vaucluse), videos showing his unconscious wife raped by dozens of men, between 2010 and 2020. On the Internet, they also had found messages he had posted on libertine dating forums where he offered people to come and take advantage of his wife, whom he drugged with powerful anxiolytics. He was indicted for aggravated rape, sexual assault and administration of harmful substances, and imprisoned. His DNA was taken and submitted to the National DNA Database in August 2022.
Disturbing Similarities
Dominique P. is now suspected by the courts of having raged in the 1990s, in the Paris region. On December 4, 1991, the body of Sophie Narme, 23, employed by a real estate agency, was discovered in an apartment on rue Manin, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. The young woman was raped and stabbed during a site visit. For several years, the investigation, entrusted to the criminal brigade of the judicial police, stalled. In May 2022, justice decides to relaunch the investigations by bringing it closer to another case which presents disturbing similarities. On May 11, 1999, in Villeparisis (Seine-et-Marne), a young woman who also works as a real estate agent escaped an attempted rape during a visit.
Traces of his assailant’s blood were found at the scene. A first analysis revealed a male genetic profile. But it will take several years for justice to put a name on it by comparing it with the DNA registered with the Fnaeg recently. Last September, the investigating judge Nathalie Turquey, newly appointed to the “cold cases” pole, was seized of these two crimes. The magistrate is particularly known for being at the origin of the elucidation of the Grelé affair. On October 12, Dominique P., who was already in pre-trial detention, was taken from his cell and placed in police custody. Before the investigators, the suspect denied the rape and the murder of 1991 but admitted in part the attempted rape of 1999. He was indicted for murder, preceded, accompanied or followed by another crime, and for an attempted of rape with a weapon.
“Old files can be processed quickly”
“These first results are proof that very old files can be processed quickly, in a few months or a few years, if there are the means and the magistrates who want to”, continues Me Corinne Hermann. The magistrates of the judicial center dedicated to “cold cases”, created in March 2022, “agreed to take up cases in which justice had failed and to look at them differently. They are detached and have time to read them again. This allows them to see things that have not been worked on or that have been forgotten, ”continues the lawyer. They can rely on the expertise of gendarmerie and police investigators “who have also worked on unsolved cases”, and are “open-minded” enough to use innovative investigative techniques. “That’s the difference” with the magistrates who were previously seized of these cases, concludes Corinne Herrmann.