A year later, the doubt was lifted with the dramatic discovery of Lina’s body. The body of the 15-year-old girl who disappeared on September 23, 2023 was found on Wednesday in Nièvre, said interim Strasbourg public prosecutor Alexandre Chevrier in a press release.
The body was discovered “in a wooded and isolated area of the Nevers region”, “immersed in a watercourse located below an embankment”, indicated Alexandre Chevrier. He specified that the genetic analyzes carried out urgently by the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN) “made it possible to confirm that it is Lina’s body”.
Discover the truth about the tragedy
“Now it’s time for new expertise and the continuation of the work of investigators to finally obtain the truth about what really happened,” a source close to the investigation told 20 Minutes. “The investigators have worked and are still working with perseverance, in conjunction with the family over the long term,” continues this same source.
The teenager’s cell phone stopped working exactly at 11:22 a.m. on September 23, 2023, while she was walking to the Saint-Blaise-la-Roche station (Bas-Rhin) along a road departmental, to go take a train and join her boyfriend in Strasbourg. On October 1, 2023, a judicial investigation was opened into charges of kidnapping and criminal confinement.
A suspect commits suicide
Last September, the public prosecutor affirmed that “Lina [avait] been tied up at one time or another.” The teenager’s DNA had been identified on ropes found in the trunk of a Ford Puma stolen by the main suspect Samuel Gonin. On the other hand, there was “no trace of blood” in the passenger compartment.
Samuel Gonin, aged 43 and father of two children, committed suicide in July 2024 when he was to be tried a few days later for aggravated theft. “I have lost my honor, my dignity, my humanity, I must leave. I don’t know how to control myself, it’s going too fast,” this man, who had broken his ban and had fallen into drug addiction, left in his final writings. He should also have appeared a few days after his suicide for two violent thefts committed on August 25, 2023 in Besançon.
Forensic assessments “will be ordered by the investigating magistrates in order to investigate the cause of death” of Lina after the discovery of her body, he said on Wednesday.
