Ambre, 19, recounts the hell endured by her sister Amandine, starved by their mother

On August 6, 2020, the day of her death from cardiac arrest, at the family home in Montblanc near Béziers, the schoolgirl weighed only 28 kg for 1.55 m. At the trial of her mother, Sandrine Pissarra, tried for “acts of torture or barbarity”, Amandine's sister described the last moments of the teenager, who died of starvation at 13 years old.

She was born in 2005, a year before Amandine. Ambre is now 19 years old and works in a bar in the region. It was as a civil party that she was questioned on Wednesday January 22, 2025 before the Hérault Assize Court in Montpellier where her mother Sandrine Pissarra, 54, for acts of torture or barbarism and the companion of the latter Jean-Michel Cros, for having done nothing to prevent the crimes.

ALSO READ – “A horror film. She died of starvation locked in a dungeon”: the ordeal of Amandine, 13 years old

“On August 6, 2020, I get up and I see mom in a panic. She tells me that Amandine is very bad. Jean-Michel helps Amandine upstairs, then I wash her in the shower. Amandine was trying to talk to me, but I didn't I didn't understand”, says the young woman with machine gun flow and without apparent emotion.

“Then I dressed her and placed her on the bed. Mom said she was going to get the car to take her to the hospital. Amandine started foaming at the mouth. Jean-Michel took her placed in the side safety position I said: 'let it go, she's dead' Then the firefighters came in, she was in cardiac arrest. she continues.

Amandine started foaming at the mouth. I said, 'Forget it, she's dead.'

Amber, sister of Amandine

In front of the Hérault Assize Court

In the dock, Sandrine Pissarra, who admitted on Tuesday for the first time the facts with which she is accused, approves of this story: “I want to thank her, she was able to say what really happened.”

“I don’t want people to think that Ambre is lying. But that day, I woke up late and Amandine was already upstairs,” for his part supports Jean-Michel Cros, 49 years old.

READ ALSO – Amandine's death trial: “yes” the mother finally admits, hearing a recording of the teenager begging her to stop the beatings

Because she wanted at all costs to avoid her mother ending up in prison, Ambre, aged 15 at the time of Amandine's death, admits to having lied a lot, serving to investigators the version developed by Sandrine Pissarra of an Amandine ” thief, hypocrite and vicious”, suffering from eating disorders and certainly died of a “wrong way”.

“Actually, Amber now explains, we didn't often see Amandine, who was always downstairs, in the storage room.” from which she never left “only to do the cleaning, first in a t-shirt, then naked, to prevent her from stealing from the snack cupboard.”

Amandine, still punished, was forced to “make lines” or to stay “on the picket”her only activities, which Sandrine Pissarra, busy knitting in the living room, monitored from her phone or tablet using cameras. When the rest of the family went out, “mom locked the door”, Amber explains.

His younger brother, Ethan, now 15 years old, was like Ambre responsible for watching Amandine: “She used me as a guard,” he explains, called in turn to the stand.

“My mother used to hit my sister's head against the wall. She was often naked when she was cleaning and when she did it badly, she would hit her.

Ethan, brother of Amandine

In front of the Hérault Assize Court

“I was only hit two or three times a month. For me, it was normal to be hit. I still love my mother, but not as much as before. My mother, she will take her punishment, She deserves it.”
“Amandine was my sister, I didn't have much contact with her, she was often locked up. I knew she wasn't eating, so I gave her food under the door.

After August 6, it was as if my mother was relieved, as if Amandine had never existed.

The two accused, Sandrine Pissara and Jean-MIchel Cros, must be questioned one last time on Thursday, before the indictment and the pleadings.

The verdict is expected on Friday January 24, 2025.