She had not given any sign of life since Friday, November 17. That day, in Tonneins (Lot-et-Garonne), Vanesa, a 14-year-old teenager, left her college on foot in the early afternoon. And then, nothing. At 6:45 p.m., his mother, mad with worry, reported his disappearance to the gendarmes.
A size device is immediately deployed to find the girl. Viewing the 28 surveillance cameras located in the town allows investigators to identify a suspicious vehicle in the area at the same time. It belongs to a certain Romain C, 31 years old.
Arrested and placed in police custody, this young father admits the worst: taken by an “urge”, he would have kidnapped then raped Vanesa before strangling her and going to hide her body in an abandoned house nearby.
This place is located in the village of Birac-sur-Trec, about fifteen kilometers from Tonneins. Saturday November 19, it is there that the lifeless body of the teenager will be found.
The building, “a little old, but still standing”, according to Le Républicain, has been uninhabited for 40 years.
“The owner bought it 40 years ago. He has another house a little further in the town,” a neighbor told the newspaper. He saw or heard nothing on the evening of the tragedy.
On Google Maps, you can see what the building looks like.
Google Street View screenshot
Shortly after the macabre discovery, which has since shaken the whole town, the owner of the house, a farmer from the village, came to affix wooden planks to seal the accommodation.
The place should now be combed through by the investigators, who are trying to clarify the last gray areas of the case. For now, we don’t know if the crime took place inside the house, just as we don’t know why the suspect chose this dismal place to get rid of the body of his young victim…
At the end of his police custody, Romain C. was indicted for the rape and murder of little Vanesa, and imprisoned.
