The 31-year-old suspect who kidnapped and killed a 14-year-old girl in Tonneins (Lot-et-Garonne), confessed to the murder of the young girl yesterday. His police custody is extended this Sunday, November 20. Here’s what we know from the investigation.
Amazement is total in Birac-sur-Trec where a young girl was found dead in an abandoned house. During’a press conference yesterday, Saturday November 19, the prosecutor of Agen, Olivier Naboulet, provided more details on this sordid disappearance. Here’s what we know.
Disappearance reported
It was the mother of the teenager who reported the disappearance of her daughter on Friday at midday, not seeing her daughter return from the Germillac college in Tonneins. Following this, the gendarmerie decided to use “video surveillance images from the city of Tonneins” which put the investigators on the trail of the suspect. On these images, we indeed see a vehicle, which belongs to a man known to justice for acts of sexual assault and theft. We also see the young girl getting into the car.
Thanks to this initial information, the police manage to identify the suspect.
The victim
Schooled in 4th grade in an allophone educational unit intended for newcomers, little Vanessa was from Spain. The family does not speak French. In shock, the parents were hospitalized.
She had a brother and a sister.
Already convicted of sexual assault
Of French nationality, he is a 31-year-old temporary worker “who lives in Marmandais”, detailed the prosecutor. The latter was not unknown to justice since he had been prosecuted, at the age of 15, for a sexual assault on a minor, committed in 2006. He had been sentenced to 15 days in prison at the time. , added the prosecutor.
This sentence “had been fully accompanied by a suspended sentence with probation for a period of two years”. He was not subject to a control measure, “was not registered in the sex offender file” and “had not been talked about (about him) since 2011”.
Quick confession
Following his arrest, the man was taken into custody on Friday at 10:45 p.m. He “very quickly” told investigators “I know why you are here” and confessed to the murder in stride. He then gave the location of where he hid the girl’s body. An abandoned house, route de Tauzinat, in Birac-sur-Trec, a few kilometers north of Tonneins.
He admitted sexual assault on the little girl.
Ongoing investigation
It will now be a question of understanding how and why the main suspect was able to commit such a crime. “We are at the very beginning of the investigation,” said the magistrate of Agen.
For now, as indicated BFM TVthe police custody of the thirties is extended this Sunday, November 20.
Emotion in Tonneins
The mayor of Tonneins, Dante Rinaudo sent a message to the inhabitants of the town. He spoke of “a teenager who asked nothing of anyone and who met the wrong person at the wrong time”. After supporting Vanessa’s parents at the hospital, he “saw in their eyes, in the eyes of children, all this distress and this questioning that you can have when you are a kid”.
“These are particularly hard times for them,” concludes the mayor.
Asked by The Dispatch, the neighbors closest to the building abandoned for more than 30 years have heard nothing. “We learned that on TV. It’s really dramatic”, explains one of them. Teenagers crossed by our colleagues in front of the college of the commune indicate to be “afraid”, “we are in the countryside here”, they launched.
The carnival which was to start yesterday has been canceled as the village is in shock.
The home owner was called to the scene to assist investigators. They will have to determine if the murder took place at the scene or if the body was simply deposited there.