a young man arrested and placed in police custody

This is thepriority investigation for the gendarmes of the Gard group for almost a week, after the attempted intentional homicide committed with a knife on Saturday January 11, 2025 around 11:15 a.m., on the fitness trail near the municipal stadium and which runs along the A9 motorway, at the North rest area, in the town of Vergèzein the Gard. According to Objective Gardit accelerated this Friday evening, with a suspect placed in police custody.

A mother of five children, who ironically found themselves a few hundred meters from the scene of the attack, on the athletics field, received five stab wounds carried by a stranger who suddenly appeared from behind, on a portion of this path which is quite busy every day. The attacker fled on foot and rare witnesses indicated that he was around twenty years old.

While this resident of the neighboring town of Aigues-Vives was rescued, hospitalized and operated on in serious condition at the Carémeau University Hospital in Nîmes, without her life being in danger, fortunately, the investigation entrusted to the gendarmerie began with major resources implemented: helicopter flight from the Montpellier aerial section, sniffer tracking dogs, investigators from the Nîmes research sectionunits from Vauvert's company and scientific technicians from the criminal identification cell.

These specialists have carried out numerous investigations, notably carried out at length in an old motorhome dating back around thirty years and in the surrounding area which had been parked for many weeks in a corner of an isolated wood near Milhaud and Bernis. It was empty, but it had been occupied a few days earlier. Criminal identification technicians -Tic- took traces, including DNA.

Located Friday evening

Did this lead help the investigation progress? It is impossible to know at a time when a man in his twenties known for often wandering alone in the forests of the Vergèze, Aigres-Vives and Aubais sectors is in police custody. Recently wanted to be questioned, he was located and arrested this Friday January 17, 2025 around 6 p.m., in a village near Vergèze, confirming that the gendarmes have always favored the local track.

Among the multiple investigative actions carried out over almost a week, the report by witnesses from Aigues-Vives of the behavior which seemed suspicious to them of a twenty-year-old, recounting being housed in a specialized center for young people in difficulty or on the street and spending his days alone in the woods between Sommières and Vergèze, was taken very seriously and discreetly verified, like other testimonies which were carefully exploited.

Furthermore, attempts or knife attacks committed in recent days, notably one in Saint-Aunèseast of Montpellier interested the gendarmes. Almost a week after the knife attack, without any attempt or sexual violence against the jogger, the investigation could progress, thanks in particular to the comparison in the automatic national file of genetic fingerprints -Fnaeg-, of the DNA isolated during the samples with that of the suspect. It will not take long for the Nîmes public prosecutor's office and the investigators to decide.

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.