Lina’s body found: how the GPS system of the suspect’s car enabled the discovery in Nièvre

On October 16, the body of Lina, a teenager who had been missing for a little over a year, was found by the gendarmes in the Nevers region, in Nièvre. His body was discovered submerged in a watercourse, hidden under an embankment. This discovery was made possible thanks to the car of the main suspect, Samuel Gonin, who committed suicide in July and who “had been geolocated at this location on September 24, 2023”, according to the press release from the Strasbourg prosecutor’s office, the day after the disappearance of the teenager.

He had “done everything to make himself undetectable”

It was only in June that the gendarmes from the Strasbourg research section identified his vehicle, a Ford Puma, by cross-referencing several surveillance videos. Impounded in Narbonne since the beginning of the year after the arrest of Samuel Gonin for refusing to comply, it was transferred for in-depth analyses.

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The investigations into the Ford Puma proved crucial. Inside, investigators found DNA traces belonging to Lina, notably on a rope. However, analyzing the geolocation system data proved more complex. Indeed, Samuel Gonin had “done everything to make himself undetectable”, according to the prosecutor. He had voluntarily deactivated the car’s satellite GPS and avoided using a cell phone, hoping to escape suspicion.

GPS SIM card terminal like phones

However, investigators exploited other tracking devices built into the vehicle, including a SIM card-style GPS, similar to that of cell phones and capable of recording movements by connecting to relay antennas crossed on the road. A system which thus revealed all the secrets of Samuel Gonin’s movements.

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The Ford Puma directed investigators to the Nevers region, where Lina’s body was finally found. In the latest research, they were already on the trail of this region with investigations near the village of Corancy where the suspect’s vehicle had been located in a forest. Before that, a first series of excavations was carried out in July 2024 in the Vosges, then in Haute-Saône in August, after the partial restoration of the GPS data.