A 15-year-old teenager reported missing, the bodies of a man and a woman found charred with “multiple ballistic trauma” and a family car found damaged in another department… Since Monday, very early in the morning, many questions have arisen after the violent fire of a farmhouse in Châteauvilain, in Isère, between Lyon and Grenoble. “The Bourgoin-Jallieu prosecutor has today relinquished the case in favor of the Grenoble public prosecutor’s office, which will open a judicial investigation for assassination,” Éric Vaillant, Grenoble public prosecutor, said on Friday. 20 minutes make the point.
A violent fire
Monday, around 6:45 a.m., around sixty firefighters and seventeen engines were mobilized for a violent fire in a farmhouse, a little outside the village of Châteauvilain, in northern Isère. According to information from Dauphiné Libéréthe fire apparently started from a carpentry workshop located next to the house.
After a long effort to put out the flames, two bodies were found in the afternoon in the rubble of the house in which a couple and their two children lived. A farmer allegedly tried to warn his neighbors. Without success. However, he came across the family dog lying in a pool of blood. According to Dauphiné Libérépellets were found in the animal’s head.
The first disturbing elements and an investigation for “assassination”
The Bourgoin-Jallieu public prosecutor quickly ordered an autopsy of the two “almost completely charred” bodies. They revealed on Wednesday that the victims suffered an “extremely violent” death. The two bodies are “probably those of a man and a woman, each with gunshot wounds to the skull and one to the thorax,” said Nathalie Hermitte, public prosecutor of Bourgoin-Jallieu. . She requested that further examinations be carried out to formally identify the two corpses, which were very damaged and were found next to each other.
The investigation opened for “destruction by dangerous means resulting in death” was transformed into an investigation for “assassination” in order to determine the circumstances of the fire and those of the deaths. It was entrusted to the Grenoble research section. Three members of the family who lived on this farm were then sought, the father, the mother and their last son born in 2008. The eldest, aged 17, had left the day before the fire for Lyon, where he his studies. The latter is “today safe, as are his two adult half-sisters who no longer live in the region”, according to the prosecution.
Investigators also noticed the absence of a car usually used by the father to get to work.
The vehicle found damaged in the Drôme
After several days of searching, particularly in Diois, where the family had a second home, the vehicle was found in Drôme. Still according to information from the local daily, the car was damaged, abandoned and empty.
According to witnesses, this Citroën was seen around fifteen minutes before the firefighters were alerted to intervene. Investigators used images from video surveillance cameras which captured the car crossing the Bièvre plain. They discovered that a “young man” was driving the vehicle. The research then focused on Valentin, the second child of the family.
A call for witnesses launched
But since Monday, the 15-year-old has not been found. The Isère gendarmerie therefore decided to launch a call for witnesses on Thursday to find him. “He is likely to be in the Saint-Vallier/Saint-Uze sector (Drôme) or in Northern Isère,” specifies the call for witnesses.
Valentin is 1.73 m tall, has a “slender, sporty” build, with shoulder-length hair and wears glasses. “If you have information allowing you to locate him, please contact 0800 20 01 42,” the gendarmerie said.
This Friday afternoon, “young Valentin is still wanted,” said prosecutor Éric Vaillant, adding that the Grenoble public prosecutor’s office had taken up the case and was going to open a “judicial investigation for assassination.”