She is one of the greatest French criminal mysteries. In the podcast “Le Titre à la Une”, Céline Kallmann returns to the disappearance of the Godard family. It was 25 years ago, and justice has never managed to unravel the mystery of this case.
Saint-Malo, September 1, 1999. Yves Godard, an acupuncturist and homeopathic doctor based in Caen, boards the Nick, a nine-meter-long sailboat that he has rented. He is not alone on board. His two children, Marius, 4, and Camille, 6, accompany him.
Marius and Camille were born from a previous union. Since then, Yves Godard has rebuilt his life with Marie-France. She is the secretary of his medical practice. Together, they form a blended family. Marie-France has two children from a previous relationship. They are teenagers.
On September 1, 1999, Marie-France did not board the sailboat. But investigators would discover that later.
A rubber dinghy in the open sea
September 5, 1999, a trawler spots an inflatable boat in the open sea. It is the tender of a pleasure boat. The crew approaches. The boat is empty of all human life, but a jacket is lying inside. In one of the pockets is a checkbook. The name of the owner is written on it: Yves Godard. The fishermen alert the authorities.
The document was discovered five days after the Godard family began their sea voyage. The trip was supposed to last four days. The press reported the affair. “The monohull had been rented by a couple and their two children from Calvados,” a journalist reported on the radio.
At the same time, the search begins at sea to find the family. On land, the first questions arise: did the simple family outing go wrong? Was it a planned leak? Did the dinghy perhaps simply come loose accidentally? Especially since on September 2, the sailboat was checked by customs. A simple routine check.
Hope is short-lived. “Doctor Godard’s medical practice in Caen and his house in Tilly-sur-Seulles have been sealed,” the press announced.
“During the searches of this house, investigators found, according to witnesses, more than just traces, pools of blood in the couple’s bedroom and in the bathroom.”
“There was also blood in the Godard car found in the parking lot of the port of Saint-Malo,” the journalist continues.
In the press, it is said that Yves Godard is apparently without history. That he is an experienced sailor. But the theory of an accident at sea seems less and less credible.
September 16, 1999, Rémy Heitz, then public prosecutor of Saint-Malo, spoke to the press: “the blood taken from the home in Tilly-sur-Seulles as well as from the vehicle discovered in the port parking lot came from Mrs. Godard.”
Where has Marie-France gone?
On the day of his departure to Saint-Malo, Yves Godard was alone at the wheel of his van, a neighbour assured a journalist. The doctor became the main suspect in the disappearance of his wife, whose body has not been found.
An arrest warrant is issued. The Godard case is shifted into a whole new dimension. The hypothesis of the accident at sea is closed. The criminal trail, however, is emerging. And still this question remains: are Yves Godard and his children still alive?
Rémy Heitz calls the press. “A man is probably on the run today with two very young children,” announces the public prosecutor of Saint-Malo. “Nothing, and I insist, nothing must therefore be undertaken, particularly on the territory of the Isle of Man, that could be likely to hinder or compromise the action of British and French investigators.”
September 17, 1999, a life jacket floats in the English Channel. It belongs to the Nick, the nine-meter sailboat rented by Yves Godard. September 24, 1999, the sailboat’s life raft is recovered off the English coast. January 2000, a bag with the doctor’s belongings and his children’s clothes are found.
The discovery of the skull
June 5, 2000, already ten months since the Godard family disappeared. Life goes on. The fishermen take to the sea to run their business. While sorting the fish, the sailors come across something unusual: a piece of human skull.
“In the panic, in the panic, when it happens to you in the middle of the night, it’s a bit macabre,” one of them explained to the press. “I told the team to get rid of it.”
Around 4 o’clock, the sailors repeated the fish sorting operation. “This time, the surprise was that there was another skull, much smaller and this time whole,” he continued. “We could clearly see the outline of the eyes and nose, and the skull was intact. There were still a few teeth.”
The crew keeps the second skull and alerts the police. Things speed up. The public prosecutor of Saint-Brieuc opens a judicial investigation. 15 days later, the results of the analyses carried out on the skull are in: the skull belongs to a female member of the Godard family. This skull is that of Camille, six years old, daughter of Yves Godard.
As terrible as it is for the family, the discovery of the bone relaunches the investigation which had been at a standstill. A mine hunter from the French Navy leaves for the area.
The search for the wreck began at dawn, 6 a.m. in rough seas. Investigators focused on the area where the small skull was discovered, but to no avail.
The professional card and the beach
February 2001, Dr. Godard’s business card and a bank card were picked up on a Breton beach. The investigating judge ordered a thorough search of the stretch of sand. A minesweeper sounded the area around the archipelago. Again, without any results.
The leads multiply. Investigators study them all, one by one. Some lead to Thailand, others to the United States, but also to South Africa. Because they are false, they close one by one. September 2006, new bones emerge from the water. “We were lifting the nets, and we found the femur and the tibia,” explains a fisherman. “We immediately thought of Godard.” And that was indeed it. Three months go by. Another press conference by the public prosecutor. “It results from the expert appraisal that was ordered that the cellular DNA that was extracted was identified as being that of Doctor Yves Godard.” In his death, Yves Godard extinguishes the public prosecution against him. The mystery of the disappearance of his wife and son remains. In September 2012, the investigating judge issues a dismissal order. 25 years after the disappearance of the Godard family, the wreck of the sailboat, the body of Marie-France and that of little Marius have never been found.
Me Jean de Mezerac, long-time lawyer for Marie-France Godard’s family, supports the theory of an altruistic suicide organized by Yves Godard.
“Doctor Godard, completely losing his grip on his family situation that he is not managing, decided to organize a collective suicide that he concealed out of consideration for the surviving members of the two family groups (…) a supposed shipwreck so that everyone could think that it was an accident,” reports the lawyer, guest on the podcast “Le Titre à la Une”.
- BFMTV.com
