If science continues to make progress in criminal investigations, this does not mean that unsolved murders will completely disappear. And these “cold cases” – these unresolved cases in the Molière language – continue to fascinate an ever-increasing audience. “I sometimes come across them in literary salons who play amateur detectives,” laughs Jean-Pierre Machain, author of “Crimes and cold cases in Normandy” which has just been published by Orep. “That’s not my case. I am content to return to the cases which left their mark by concentrating on the facts, the testimonies of the time, thanks to meticulous research work.
And if Jean-Pierre Machain was interested in Norman criminal cases, it is because he sometimes has the opportunity to come across some of their authors in his profession. Because the writer has also been a prison guard for almost 25 years, at Bonne-Nouvelle, the remand center located in Rouen (Seine-Maritime). “I was interested in prison history in general [son premier livre paru en 2019 était consacré à l’histoire de Bonne-Nouvelle, NDLR] and by extension to criminals incarcerated in the region, some of whom I was able to meet such as Alfred Petit, Nicolas Cocaign who killed a fellow inmate before eating part of his lung, Patrick Henry when I was stationed in Caen…” This time, among the thirty or so news items that he recounts, he has chosen to select around fifteen whose culprit(s) have never been found.
The oldest dates from 1913 and caused turmoil in the Caux region. The Bobées, a family of farmers, were found riddled with lead on their farm in La Remuéue (Seine-Maritime), arousing fear in the surrounding countryside since the gendarmes never had any serious leads leading to the perpetrator. shots. Only the rifle was found by chance almost two years after the events, too late to help them unravel the mystery of this triple homicide.
“The case that probably had the biggest impact on me? It’s that of Antoinette Lenepveu,” assures the Rouen author. “But not because of the circumstances of her death even if this woman was killed very violently at her home, at the Glacerie, in La Manche in 1983 and her body was decapitated. But rather for the mystery surrounding his past. Because we know nothing about her between 1929 and 1953. Some rumors say that she collaborated during the war and that she was in hiding. Another that she was a former prostitute who wanted to forget this past. But for investigators, it is a real black hole where the motives of the person who killed her may be hidden. »
And although a man in overalls was seen by firefighters near his home at the alleged time of the murder, he was never identified. A crime that will also go unpunished? Not sure…
As Jean-Pierre Machain explains, “since May 2023, the file has been in the hands of the cold case unit of the Nanterre judicial court”. Dedicated to the treatment of serial or unsolved crimes, this service was created in March 2022. And following a call for witnesses, new leads are being examined. As for the body, it was exhumed in search of new clues. “Today, and this is what I try to illustrate in my book, is that cold cases are no longer always dead ends. And that the possibility of discovering the culprits, even many years after the fact, exists. Particularly for the most recent cases,” he specifies. With almost a secret hope in mind: “It is possible that one of my readers will remember a detail concerning one of these cases and provide decisive testimony to the investigators. » A hypothesis that is certainly unlikely, but which would then provide material for a series worthy of the best thrillers.
“Crimes and cold cases in Normandy”, by Jean-Pierre Machain (OREP éditions), 418 pages, 11.90 euros.
