One year later, RTL-TVI returns to the suicide of Marwan Berreni, the actor of “Plus belle la vie”

For the first episode of the season of “A Perfect Crime?”, this Tuesday, Julie Denayer’s show addresses the death of the actor suspected of having run over a young woman with his car.

August 4, 2023, Jean-Luc Chapuis and his wife, Aurélie, return to their home in Corcelles-en-Beaujolais, 50 km from Lyon. At the bend in a dirt road, they see someone walking in the vineyards. The couple, fans of “Plus belle la vie”, immediately recognize the person: it is Marwan Berreni, the actor who plays Abdel in the series. The man wanders alone, under a blazing sun. “I knew he lived a few kilometers from us, but you don’t expect to see a famous actor in a village of 950 inhabitants,” explains Jean-Luc. “He was not in his normal state, his head down. We wondered what he was doing barefoot on a dirt road.” The two fans do not know it, but the star is on the run after an accident the day before, where he ran over a young woman, Sandra. And they have no idea that they will be the last to see the actor alive.

A few hours later, the actor killed himself in an abandoned farm. “I never imagined this outcome,” regrets Aurélie. “I feel quite guilty. I could have stopped and seen that he needed help and maybe saved him. Hanging yourself is the worst death.” This testimony, one of the many that we will see this Tuesday in “A Perfect Crime?”, is enough to raise questions about the way the investigation was conducted in the Berreni case. Because, although the couple quickly testified to the police, it was not until two months later that the actor’s body was found in this old building very close to the place where he had been seen wandering.

But let’s start from the beginning. It all began on August 3, 2023 in Mâcon, in Saône-et-Loire. Sandra was walking her dog around 11 p.m. when, suddenly, she was hit head-on by a car. “It happened very quickly,” she says. “I had checked to see if there was anyone before crossing and, as I reached the end of the pedestrian crossing, two headlights came on and the car charged at me. I spun. What followed was a total blackout.” Taken to hospital, Sandra was between life and death. “I had eight fractured ribs, a grazed liver, a pneumothorax, abdominal hemorrhage, a fractured pelvis, and a broken right collarbone.” It’s a miracle that she survived!

From the outset, the accounts of the witnesses suggest that this was not a trivial accident: the car seems to have deliberately driven, then stopped, reversed and ran over Sandra before driving off again. “I thought it was someone who had it in for me,” confided Sandra. A settling of scores? Not impossible, since shortly before, Sandra had helped the police dismantle a drug trafficking network. But the theory of revenge does not fit with the rest of the investigation, because the vehicle was very quickly found and turned out to be that of the actor from “Plus belle la vie”.

Everyone describes him as friendly, approachable, generous. On the evening of the tragedy, it is believed that Marwan ran over his victim while leaving Club 400, the local nightclub where he had said he was going. What state was he in? Drunk, had he fled after the accident? For two months, there was no news of him. The wildest theories circulated: he had been kidnapped, held captive or caught up in drug trafficking. In fact, the actor never left the village of Corcelles-en-Beaujolais. Although his body was not found until October 12, 2023, he killed himself on August 4, shortly after meeting the couple who had recognized him.

Alcohol and cocaine

Some close friends do not want to believe this scenario, find it hard to imagine that he could have committed suicide. But behind the smiles and sunny personality, Marwan hid wounds. At 24, his little brother Bilal was shot dead in the United States. A tragedy from which he never recovered. He was also deeply affected by the suicide of Michel Cordes, who played the owner of the Le Mistral café in “Plus belle la vie”, on May 5, 2023. Marwan Berreni was depressed. A grief that he drowned in alcohol and drugs! A witness claims in the report that the actor was adrift. “At night, he was not the guy we imagined. He was unmanageable when he left an establishment, he was totally stoned. He is the only known guy that no one dared approach to take a photo with him. He consumed alcohol, but also a lot of cocaine. It was truly a total decline.”

And according to this witness, Marwan, under the influence of substances, was refused entry to the Club 400 on the evening of the tragedy, contrary to everything that had been said. Frustrated, he left in a rage, starting his car at full speed. And running over Sandra. Afterwards, why did he commit suicide rather than go to the police? Nathalie Marquay, who had spent ten days in the Philippines with him a week before the tragedy, explains that the actor had told her, when talking about the Pierre Palmade affair, that if he caused such an accident, he would not be able to live with it and that he would “fuck himself up”. In light of these sadly prophetic words, everything makes sense. Even if there has never been any formal proof that it was Marwan at the wheel that evening.

While many are still mourning the loss of the actor, we will also have a thought for his victim, Sandra. A year later, she still suffers from post-traumatic stress. “I am receiving psychological support and I am taking antidepressants, neuroleptics and anxiolytics,” she confided in the local press at the beginning of August. “I no longer leave my house. The discovery of Marwan Berreni’s body was the hardest thing to experience. All the illusions of one day having answers to the questions I was asking myself have vanished. I wanted to be able to attend a trial. To stand in front of him.” A face-to-face encounter that would undoubtedly have helped her get back on her feet. But the actor took away the answers he could have provided.

A perfect crime, Tuesday August 27, 8:25 p.m. on RTL-TVI.

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