“These elements tend to demonstrate that the death was the result of a strangulation maneuver. » Two months after the discovery of Lina's body, investigators delivered their main hypothesis on the death of the teenager, who disappeared in September 2023 in Alsace. If the autopsy operations did not make it possible “to formally determine the cause of death”, certain clues support the hypothesis according to which the teenager died by “mechanical strangulation”, indicated the acting public prosecutor of Strasbourg Alexandre Chevrier, in a press release Thursday December 19.
In the autopsy report, the forensic doctors “took care to specify that their conclusions had to be considered with a certain caution due to the state of degradation of the body and its prolonged exposure to an aquatic environment,” underlines the magistrate. The body of Lina, 15, was discovered immersed in a river in Nièvre last October. “It was nevertheless revealed a horizontal furrow under the chin, as well as the presence of tissue surrounding the cervical region and the base of the skull, these elements being in favor of mechanical strangulation using the tissue discovered. »
“The forensic doctors also noted the presence of linear cracks on the left part of the mandibular region, which could result from a traumatic action in the lower part of the mandible and in the upper part of the neck. Analyzes of the fabric revealed that it was a tote-bag type bag,” the press release continued. “These elements tend to demonstrate that the death was the result of a strangulation maneuver using the handles of this bag,” specifies Alexandre Chevrier.
No gynecological examination possible
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”, declares the prosecutor. Likewise, no details are given on the date of the young girl's death.
“To date, all the elements are in favor of solitary action on the part of Samuel Gonin,” adds the interim public prosecutor of Strasbourg. The main suspect, however, will never be able to answer the many questions that remain unanswered in this case since he committed suicide at the beginning of July at his home in Besançon.
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“Moreover, various analyzes are still in progress and investigations are continuing,” indicates the prosecutor, anticipating the closure of the information in all probability “at the end of the first half of 2025”.
Lina disappeared on Saturday September 23, 2023 late in the morning. She had left her home in Plaine, in Bas-Rhin, to go to the Saint-Blaise-la-Roche station, about three kilometers away. She had to take the train to meet her boyfriend in Strasbourg, about sixty kilometers away. After numerous searches carried out in the Vosges and Haute-Saône, the body of the teenager was found a year later in a river in Sermoise-sur-Loire, in Nièvre, nearly 500 kilometers from place of his disappearance.
