A man was taken into police custody on Monday, November 25 in Grenoble, in connection with two cold cases from 1988 and 2000. The individual, aged around sixty, could be involved in the murders of Nathalie Boyer and Leila Afif. The Boyer family's lawyer expresses her relief.
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This Monday, November 25, a man was placed in police custody in the premises of the Grenoble gendarmerie research section. Aged around sixty, he is suspected of being involved in the murders of Leila Afif and Nathalie Boyer.
Concerning the latter, the facts date back to August 3, 1988. A woman reported the disappearance of her daughter to the gendarmerie. Nathalie Boyer, a 15-year-old teenager, has not given any sign of life for several hours. Her friends were the last to see her.
His lifeless body was finally found the next morning along the railway tracks in the town of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, in Isère. The teenager's throat was slit. The autopsy established that no trace of sexual violence was committed by her murderer.
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The murder of Nathalie Boyer in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier
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Initially, investigators looked into a couple of neighbors known for inviting young girls into their apartment and subjecting them to sexual acts. Following long weeks of investigations, the couple will be exonerated. The investigation took a new turn in 1994. Suspicion fell on a man working in England. But after more research, the individual will be cleared.
Nearly 36 years later, this new arrest perhaps marks the end of this insoluble mystery. In any case, it can allow the families of the victims to regain faith in justice. “This is a relief for families who have been waiting for the truth for so long and an obvious need to know more. […] I spent several hours and days with the family to support this moment. We cannot tell them this like that, 36 years later, when they have lived 36 years without this truth.“, says Corinne Herrmann, lawyer for Nathalie Boyer's family.
For the moment, the details of the suspicions placed on the sixty-year-old are not yet known. But his placement in police custody and the DNA analysis carried out 36 years after the murder of the young woman, changed the case and plunged the victim's family into a whirlwind of emotions.
This is great hope for other families. There are other businesses in Isère.
Me Corinne Herrmann, lawyer for the family of Nathalie Boyer.
“These are extremely intense moments where all the feelings mix: anger, relief, the desire to know more. […] There is anger for having waited so long, for not having been heard by the justice system and the investigators. They were extremely mistreated at the time by the police officers who worked on this case. All this comes up today, like all these errors committed which allowed other crimes subsequently like that of Leila Afif“, relates the lawyer.
Despite these feelings, Me Corinne Herrmann highlights this major progress. A step forward made possible thanks to the creation of the cold case center in 2022, under the leadership of the victims' families. “This is great hope for other families. There are other businesses in Isère. […] You must not give up. It's a pain to continue, it's a pain to encounter magistrates who reject you. But then it's another world when you have an answer.“
