at the trial of the murder of Nathalie D., the mechanics of control

The children of Nathalie D., who died with her throat cut at her ex-partner’s home in La Madeleine in the Lille metropolitan area, came to testify on the third day of the trial of Jérôme Tonneau, accused of having kidnapped and killed his ex-partner.

On the third day of the trial of Jérôme Tonneau, accused of having his ex-partner kidnapped and killed in Lille, the victim’s children recounted the progressive invasion of his private life by a possessive man, until his kidnapping by three family friends. “It came to a crescendo,” says Florine D., daughter of Nathalie D., who died five years earlier with her throat slit at the home of her ex-partner in La Madeleine in the Lille metropolis.

“I found mom too hard on him”

The young woman evokes a man who was initially “nice”, “always ready to be of service”, to the point that she took his side at the time of the break-up: “I found my mother too hard on him”, she remembers. But she also remembers his “invasive presence”: some time before their separation, he launched major works in the house of this 47-year-old woman, mother of two children. “She was too tired to get back on track,” summarizes her daughter, 25 years old. When Nathalie D. finally leaves the accused for good, he attempts suicide.

This was followed by numerous text messages sent to Nathalie D. and her children, alternating suicide blackmail and threats, reports her son Romain N. The accused also tried to penetrate the victim’s phone and Facebook account. Worried, Nathalie D. had an alarm installed and asked her son for a hammer “to keep near her bedside table, because she no longer felt safe,” says the latter.

But it is ultimately at her workplace that Nathalie D. is kidnapped. A key character made the kidnapping possible: Emanuel D., a Romanian engaged in business with Jérôme Tonneau and who in a few months became a great friend of Florine D. To the point that the victim’s two children, Emanuel D. and the cousins ​​of this one “spend all their time together” go “to fast food” and “to the pool table” on weekends. In her phone, Florine wrote down Emanuel’s number under the Romanian word for “Brother.” He himself calls her “my sister”, and Nathalie D., “mom”.

However, on May 27, 2019, Emanuel D. participated in the kidnapping of Nathalie D. to deliver her to her ex-partner, with two other men that the victim’s children also knew. “Emanuel D. was the only one who could save my mother, but he didn’t do it,” says his daughter Florine painfully. In the glass box, Emanuel D. nods seriously, his eyes glued to the ground. The trial is scheduled to last until July 5.