Nearly 3,000 people for a final farewell to Philippine

Some 2,800 people attended the funeral Friday afternoon of Philippine, the 19-year-old student killed and whose body was found in the west of Paris on Saturday, at the Saint-Louis cathedral in Versailles, noted a journalist from the AFP.

His murder sparked debate and emotion across the country because of the criminal and administrative background of the suspect, a 22-year-old Moroccan, convicted of rape and awaiting deportation.

The light wooden coffin of the young woman, a student at Paris-Dauphine University, was brought inside shortly before 1 p.m., preceded by a procession and accompanied by her family. Chants then rose up from inside the building. Around 1,800 people were present at the church and 1,000 on the square, according to a police source.

“We are here to cry, to pray,” said Abbot Pierre-Hervé Grosjean in his homily, distributed to the press outside the cathedral. The priest also recalled Philippine’s religious commitment, particularly within her parish and the Scouts and Guides of France.

The already compact crowd on the square has thickened since the start of the funeral. Some on the square pray, kneeling on the paving stones. A discreet police presence is visible all around the square.

According to an abbot who spoke to the press earlier, the cathedral had reached full capacity around twenty minutes before the start of the funeral.

Dressed in black, Andréa Brandao, 20, came alone to attend the funeral because she feels “hugely concerned and out of love for the family”.

This law and history student at Nanterre did not know Philippine personally, but says she counts one of her close friends among her best friends.

“I found it important to come here to reflect and pay my respects,” said Julia, 15, a student of Philippine’s mother at the Saint-Exupéry high school, who came to attend the funeral in the company of her mother. The young girl clutches a small bouquet of white and purple flowers in her fingers.

“It was important to come and support the whole family, we have children of his age and we all feel concerned by this tragedy,” adds his mother, Anouck B., who preferred not to give her name.

At the corner of the square on which the cathedral stands, two Versailles residents who preferred to remain anonymous confided that they wanted to be there “as believers and as women”.

Philippine’s body was found not far from her university campus in the Bois de Boulogne, in the west of the capital, during a search organized on Saturday afternoon.

The 22-year-old suspect, Taha O., was convicted in 2021 for rape and released “at the end of his sentence” in June, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. He was under an obligation to leave the territory (OQTF). He was arrested in Geneva.

The mass is celebrated by Father Pierre-Hervé Grosjean, priest of the parish of Montigny-Voisins, of which Philippine was one of the faithful.