This Monday, June 23, 2008, a retired teacher is walking on the banks of the Loiret, in Olivet, when he sees a body in the river. The firefighters and the police go to the scene and pull out of the water the body of a brunette woman with brown eyes, measuring about 1m65. The victim is dressed in a white T-shirt, black shorts, white socks and gray sneakers. On the other hand, they find neither mobile phone, nor document which would make it possible to identify it. But investigators make the link with the disappearance, the day before, of a 45-year-old woman from the city, who had gone for a run a little before 8 p.m. It is indeed Caroline Marcel. Quickly, the accidental track is discarded: the autopsy will reveal that she was hit on the head, then strangled with her T-shirt before being thrown into the water.
Almost 14 years have passed since his murder. And investigators from the OCRVP (Central Office for the Suppression of Violence against Persons) and the Orléans judicial police are still trying to find the author. Did she have a bad date? Or was the murder premeditated? In order to relaunch investigations at a standstill, M6 devotes part of its program this Monday, January 31 Call for witnesses, presented by Julien Courbet and Nathalie Renoux, to this case. “The difficulty is that the crime scene presents only a few interesting elements, and no material elements. In addition, the motive is complicated to identify because there are too many possible leads, ”explains divisional commissioner Philippe Guichard, deputy to the deputy director of the fight against organized crime, and former boss of the OCRVP.
No witness
Divorced, mother of an 11-year-old child, Caroline Marcel parked her black Clio in the parking lot near a retirement home. That evening, few locals walked around the area. The weather is overcast, and Spain faces Italy in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008. No witness to the crime has come forward, and the rain later took care of erasing the few traces that the murderer could have left. When her ex-husband, Patrice, learns the news, he cannot hide his “amazement”, as he confided this Monday in the show Crime Hour on RTL. His ex-wife was, according to him, “not threatened”. Why would anyone want to take it out on her?
The police note that his body was found not far from a rehabilitation center, which accommodates former prisoners, about thirty of whom have been convicted of sexual offences. But the checks carried out lead the investigators to dismiss this track. They will also look for links with other cases of joggers killed elsewhere in France, but again, without result. They will then immerse themselves in the life of this deputy director of the Crédit Agricole d’Olivet agency. She had remained on good terms with her ex-husband who had custody of their daughter the weekend of his death. The investigation reveals that she was in conflict with her bosses, to the point of wanting to appeal to the council of Prud’Hommes and to be arrested. Described as a somewhat “directive” person, she had sometimes tense relationships with certain clients.
“Cases have been clarified following TV shows”
But there is no evidence that his death is related to his work. The investigators will for a time be interested in one of his former companions, a man described as jealous, sometimes violent. A track all the more interesting that Caroline Marcel wanted to separate from him. A few days earlier, she had bought a ring intended to make him jealous. A jewel that has never been found, neither in the river nor at his home… Placed in police custody, he came out free without any charge being brought against him. After examining his phone, the police came to the conclusion that he was not near the crime scene on the evening of the incident.
In 2018, the lawyer for the victim’s parents, Me Chantal Bonnard, indicated on France Bleu Orléans that advances in science have made it possible to discover “small traces of DNA”. These traces were compared to those contained in the file of perpetrators of sexual or violent offences. Again, no result. The emission of M6 thus constitutes a last hope to find the murderer of Caroline Marcel. “From experience, I can say that several cases have been clarified following TV or radio broadcasts long after the facts”, underlines the divisional commissioner Philippe Guichard. And the latter to conclude: “The slightest element, the slightest information, even which seems fragmentary, is interesting and should not be neglected. Regularly publicizing cases of this nature is a real plus in an investigation. »