In Ploërmel, in Morbihan, the emotion is at the height of the incomprehension: what happened to the parish priest of the town, Father Christophe Guégan? This 55-year-old clergyman disappeared during the night from Wednesday to Thursday last. As if it had vanished. Opened for “disturbing disappearance”, “the investigation continues within the privileged framework of a voluntary act of the missing person”, indicates to 20 minutes the public prosecutor of Lorient, Stéphane Kellenberger, confirming information from France 3.
“When I learned of this disturbing disappearance, I fell out of my chair. But while the suicide trail is now being mentioned, it is a huge surprise,” confides the mayor of the town, Patrick Le Diffon. The two men spoke regularly, particularly about the religious heritage of the city, since the arrival of Father Christophe – that’s what everyone calls him – in 2016. Just a few days ago, the man The church was at the wishes of the mayor. “He is a man who is absolutely not isolated. He is very open, has a lot of social relationships…”, he insists.
He affirms that he, like “all the parishioners”, has never detected the slightest sign of psychological fragility. In the diocese of Vannes, too, it is difficult to believe this hypothesis. “There has never been the slightest sign suggesting psychological fragility,” we assure.
A disturbing disappearance
The alert was given last Thursday at the beginning of the afternoon by the Sisters of the community of Dominicans of the Holy Spirit of Berné, about an hour from Ploërmel. Almost every week, Father Christophe goes to this congregation to celebrate mass on Thursday morning at 7 a.m. “He has a habit of arriving the evening before by car. This is actually what happened, he put his things down,” it is specified within the diocese. But the next day, the priest does not show up for the service. Such an absence is not in his habit – “even less without warning” – and is quickly considered worrying. And especially since his car has disappeared while his belongings are still there. The Sisters set out to look for him and then informed the local gendarmerie.
The matter is taken seriously. The last geolocation of his phone dates from the previous night and directs the search to around fifteen kilometers from the congregation, near Locunolé, in Finistère. A helicopter from the Rennes gendarmerie is dispatched. But even before its arrival, the vehicle – empty – is located in the town of Guilligomarc’h. It’s less than 10 minutes by car from where his phone was located. An investigation into a “disturbing disappearance” was then opened by the Lorient public prosecutor’s office.
The area, particularly steep – it is nicknamed “the Devil’s rocks” – is raked. A dog leads the police to a river, the Ellé, popular with kayakers for its strong current. The next day, the search resumed. A Saint-Hubert dog, specialist in this type of research, confirms the track traced the day before, all the way to the river. The banks, mills or ruins are inspected. In vain. During the weekend, divers from the Côtes-d’Armor gendarmerie probed two sectors of the river, without further success.
End of operational research
“The operational research has been completed,” a source close to the investigation said this Thursday. This will obviously not prevent one-off research depending on the progress of the investigation. » This does not mean that the investigations have stopped. But now, the gendarmes are focusing on classic investigations: analysis of all the elements collected, study of telephony, banking elements, possibly video surveillance.
“The area is very large and from a certain point, there is no point in combing without knowing where to look,” continues this source.