New expertise carried out on Lina’s body established that the teenager had been strangled.
The sinister maneuver was probably carried out using the “handles of a fabric bag”, the prosecution said on Thursday.
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Disappearance of Lina: her body found in Nièvre
The chain of events leading to the young girl’s death becomes clearer. Additional expertise, carried out after the initial autopsy, does not “will not make it possible to formally determine the cause of death” of Lina, indicated, Thursday, December 19, the prosecution in a press release. Moreover, the experts’ conclusions must “be considered with a certain caution due to the state of degradation of the body [au moment de sa découverte] and its prolonged exposure to the aquatic environment”.
However, “a horizontal furrow under the chin was revealed, as well as the presence of tissue surrounding the cervical region and the base of the skull.. These elements tip the balance towards a “mechanical strangulation using exposed tissue”underlines the interim public prosecutor, Alexandre Chevrier. Forensic doctors also found “the presence of linear cracks on the left part of the mandibular region, which may result from traumatic action at the level of the lower part of the mandible and at the level of the upper part of the cor”, he specifies, adding that“no other ante-mortem traumatic injury” was not highlighted. In other words, all these clues “tend to demonstrate that the death resulted from a strangulation maneuver using the handles […] a tote-bag type bag.
“A solitary action by Samuel Gonin”?
“If the analyzes make it possible to rule out death by drowning, it was however not possible to carry out a gynecological examination or sample”affirms the magistrate. “To date, all elements favor solitary action on the part of Samuel Gonin“he notes all the same. The person concerned, the main suspect in this affair, will however never be able to answer the many questions which remain unanswered since he committed suicide at the beginning of July at his home in Besançon.
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According to the prosecution, “various analyzes are still in progress and investigations continue […] in the context of judicial information”. This procedure will be closed “in all likelihood” in the first half of 2025.
