Murder of a teenager in Lot-et-Garonne: 3 things to know about this case

On the night of Friday November 18 to 19, 2022, a 14-year-old girl was found dead in an abandoned house in Lot-et-Garonne. According to several sources familiar with the investigation to AFP, a 31-year-old suspect has been taken into custody since yesterday after confessing to the murder by strangulation. A new news item that is shaking France. Planet takes stock of what you need to know.

According to La Dépêche, the 14-year-old victim was called Vanessa. The eldest of a family of three children, the teenager of Spanish origin was educated in college in the town of Tonneins. Relayed by our colleagues from La Voix du Nord, we learn that the young girl “had arrived in France a year ago with her family”, and “supported in an allophone educational unit intended for newcomers”.

When she had to leave classes in the afternoon, her disappearance was reported by her parents, worried that their daughter would not return to their home. At 6:45 p.m., the mother of the teenager went to the police to alert the authorities, according to Olivier Naboulet, public prosecutor of Agen, during a press conference held this Saturday. The gendarmes examined “the video-protection images of the town of Tonneins”, he told the press.

We then learn that Vanessa would have boarded the vehicle of a stranger. According to the mayor of Tonneins, Dante Rinaudo, the schoolgirl did not know her attacker. “She was at the right time, at the wrong time,” he explains to his colleagues from Sud-Ouest. While the trail of the kidnapping is privileged, the investigators carry out their investigation and go up the trail of an individual in the evening. It was not until around 11 p.m. that the police arrested a suspect, according to BFM TV. An arrest that will change everything.

On the evening of November 18, a 31-year-old man was arrested by the police at his home. According to the statements of the public prosecutor of Agen, the individual is a resident of Marmande (in Lot-et-Garonne). A 30-year-old of French nationality, working as a temporary worker in the region.

According to the public prosecutor of Agen, the suspect declared to the police who came to his home. “I know why you are here”. Taken to the police station in Marmande where he is placed in police custody, the 30-year-old confessed “very quickly”. According to sources close to the investigation, the suspect revealed that he would have strangled the victim and indicated “the place where the body of this young lady is”, details the magistrate on BFM TV.

Shortly before midnight, the body of the schoolgirl was found in an abandoned house in Birac-sur-Trec. If the investigation follows its course and the suspect remains presumed innocent, this is not the first time that he has run into trouble with the law.

During the press conference on November 19, 2022, the Agen prosecutor revealed that the suspect was already known to the courts. In 2006, the latter “was prosecuted, when he was a minor, for acts of sexual assault on a minor”. Then 15 years old at the time of the facts, he was found guilty and sentenced for these facts to a sentence of 15 days of imprisonment, accompanied by a suspended sentence with probation for 2 years, underlines the protagonist.

According to his criminal profile, the suspect “was not registered as a sex offender” and “was not subject to a control measure”. Then the prosecutor clarifies. “Since 2011, the person, placed in police custody, had not been talked about. No mention in the criminal record”. At this stage of the investigation, the identity of the alleged murderer remains unknown. While an autopsy should be performed in the coming days on the body of the victim, indicates BFMTV.