As part of a new system for calling for witnesses, called “In search of clues”the Nanterre serial or unsolved crimes center is relaunching a first investigation, that of the “knife rapist”, who raged in Melun (in Seine-et-Marne) in 2002, then in Gujan-Mestras (in Gironde) and in Saint-Paul-lès-Dax, (in the Landes) in 2011.
Despite significant investigative work carried out by the Bayonne Judicial Police and the Central Office for the Suppression of Violence against Persons (OCRVP), the individual remains untraceable. A video is posted online on the website of the Ministry of the Interior and must make it possible to collect new testimonies useful for investigations.
Three rapes in 2002 and 2011
On December 9 and 19, a small man (1.60 to 1.70 m) sexually attacked two women at the threat of a retractable knife, in rather isolated places. The connection between these two rapes is quite rapid since the same operating mode emerges and each time the attacker wears gloves and a hat. They are also quite close geographically, around 100 km apart, between Gironde and Landes. The cross-checking of the DNA makes it possible to make the link with a third rape, which took place nine years earlier, on February 14, 2002, in Melun.
“The police are relaunching the investigation today to provide a criminal response to the victims so that they can rebuild their lives and to prevent other women from being victims of this sexual predator,” argues Sophie, police commander at the judicial police. from Bayonne.