look back at the 11 key dates that marked the affair

See my news
Follow News Strasbourg

After very long months of research, anguish and painful moments, “the Lina affair” experienced a difficult epilogue, this Wednesday, October 16, 2024. The body of the 15-year-old teenager at the time of her disappearance was found in Nièvre.

A look back at the key moments of this case, opened with the disappearance of Lina, in September 2023, and in which many questions remain:

AUGUST 24, 2023

The Ford Puma in which Lina’s DNA will be found is stolen in Germany, in Fribourg, probably by Samuel Gonin, a forty-year-old who has broken his ban and is suffering from psychological problems.

SEPTEMBER 23, 2023

At 9:23 a.m., Samuel Gonin is filmed at a gas station in Germany, where he steals fuel. He is alone in the car.

Between 11:20 a.m. and 11:26 a.m., the Ford was located on the road between Plaine and Saint-Blaise-la-Roche, in the immediate vicinity of the disappearance of 15-year-old Lina, whose phone stopped ringing at 11:22 a.m.

At 12:23 p.m. the car stops at Anould, in the Vosges, about forty kilometers from Plaine. It will then make other stops, in Saulx (Haute-Saône), and in Morvan.

1^is OCTOBER 2023

A judicial investigation is opened on charges of kidnapping and criminal confinement. Two investigating judges from Strasbourg are jointly seized.

JANUARY 2024

Samuel Gonin was arrested near Narbonne for refusing to comply during the weekend of January 6 and 7. The Ford Puma is impounded. Convicted on January 22 for this traffic offense, he was released under judicial supervision.

EARLY JUNE 2024

Investigators from the Strasbourg research section identify a suspicious vehicle by cross-referencing videos, a Ford Puma. On June 26, this car, which was still impounded in Narbonne, was transferred to the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN) for analysis.

JULY 10, 2024

Samuel Gonin commits suicide in Besançon. He leaves writings but without explicit reference to Lina.

JULY 24, 2024

The first operating elements of the vehicle’s multimedia system show that it was precisely at the place of Lina’s disappearance, in the period of time when she disappeared.

JULY 26, 2024

The Strasbourg public prosecutor’s office announces that Lina’s “genetic profile” was found in the Ford. For Strasbourg prosecutor Yolande Renzi, this “major advance should make it possible to locate Lina”.

On the rear seats, at the level of the central rear seat belt and also on the red part of the right rear passenger belt buckle retaining system. It was found in the glove box, Lina’s handbag, which contained various items: a mirror, false eyelashes, false eyelash glue, the case of her cell phone and her headphones. From all these objects, Lina’s DNA was isolated.

JULY 30, 2024

Searches took place for several days in Anould, where the car had stopped an hour after Lina’s disappearance. Without result. Other searches will take place at the beginning of August in Saulx, then in Morvan, where the car also stopped on September 23, 2023. Again without success.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2024

The interim public prosecutor of Strasbourg, Alexandre Chevrier, announced that Lina’s DNA and that of Samuel Gonin were found on ropes in the trunk of the car, “which tends to demonstrate that at one time or at another, Lina was tied up.” Lina’s purse was also found in the glove compartment.

OCTOBER 16, 2024

Mr. Chevrier announces that Lina’s body was found “in a wooded and isolated area in the Nevers region”, “immersed in a watercourse located below an embankment”.

“The Ford Puma vehicle used by Samuel Gonin (the main suspect, Editor’s note) had been geolocated at this location on September 24, 2023”, the day after the disappearance of the young girl, specifies the magistrate. “The genetic analyzes carried out urgently by the IRCGN made it possible to confirm that it is Lina’s body.”

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.