On February 16, 2021, Stéphanie M. died after falling more than sixteen meters from the window of her apartment. This Monday, October 14, the trial of a 36-year-old man opens at the Gironde assizes. Alongside a second accused, they will have to answer for the circumstances which led to the death of this 31-year-old Bordeaux woman.
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After years of denying his involvement in the death of Stéphanie M., a 36-year-old man appears this Monday, October 14 before the Bordeaux Assize Court. Accused of kidnapping leading to death, he allegedly caused the thirty-year-old to fall from the window of her apartment, on the fourth floor of a building located at 86 rue de la Rousselle, in Bordeaux.
On February 16, 2021, around 4 p.m., the Bordeaux police intervened on rue de la Rousselle after being contacted by a neighbor, who indicated that she had seen a woman who had fallen, “pushed by a man”. They discovered the victim in the interior courtyard of the building. Stéphanie M., a 31-year-old from Bordeaux, is bloodied and has multiple fractures as well as a hole in her skull; she will not survive her injuries.
The applicant, a neighbor of the victim, heard noises as well as screams, two of which were “Help”before seeing the victim fall from the window. The man who was standing behind the window, according to her, then said “oh well there you go” seeing her fall.
On February 16, 2021, the national police officers of Bordeaux arrested one of the two defendants and opened an investigation into intentional homicide.
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© France 3 Aquitaine
While the SMUR noted the death, despite the care provided, the national police tried to access the victim’s apartment. Locked and without reaction after knocking, they break down the door and discover an apartment “in great apparent disorder” and a man present at the scene. They then arrested the 36-year-old from Bordeaux, unfavorably known to the judicial services with 24 convictions, notably for drug trafficking. The public prosecutor declared at the time of “traces of struggle” were also identified. A flagrant murder investigation was then opened by the DDSP of Gironde.
The investigation will ultimately reveal that the victim and the accused spent the evening and morning of the next day together, drinking alcohol and consuming drugs, without a marital bond being established between the two people. When the Bordeaux resident was arrested, analyzes revealed the presence of alcohol, cocaine and cannabis in his blood.
At the time of his death, the victim was not alcoholic, despite recent consumption detected. However, she had taken several opiates and anxiolytics, as well as a hypnotic medication. An association which, according to experts, “was compatible with the occurrence of major behavioral and vigilance disorders”.
Since his arrest three years ago, the defendant has changed his version several times. Initially, it depicts a scene of a violent domestic dispute during which the victim allegedly threatened to jump out of the window, before doing so, against a backdrop of psychiatric problems. He then mentions the theft of a sum of money.
According to him, Stéphanie M. invited him to spend the night at her place. Having left the victim’s house at the beginning of the afternoon, he returned there two hours later, suspecting her of having stolen several hundred euros from him. He was then accompanied by a woman who allegedly tried to play the role of mediator before going to an ATM to withdraw money using the victim’s card. This is the second person present in the accused box. In their version, they claim that Stéphanie M. then made two suicide attempts, before evading their attention and jumping out of the window.
Three years of investigation were necessary to shed light on the death of Stéphanie M.
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© France 3 Aquitaine
A version invalidated by a witness who accuses the defendant of being a cocaine dealer who came to the victim’s house to violently settle his debt.
Conflicting versions between the witnesses, the civil parties and the accused which will have to be resolved during this trial. The auditions will last three days, until Wednesday October 16. In the dock, the two defendants will have to answer to charges of arrest, kidnapping, kidnapping or arbitrary detention followed by death and extortion by violence. They face life imprisonment.
As part of the investigation, first opened for intentional homicide, a reconstruction took place on June 23, 2022, in the afternoon. At the time, many flowers and signs in support of the victim were brought to the foot of the building. Feminist associations have counted the death of Stéphanie M. as the 12th feminicide of 2021.
