The association helping victims of unresolved cases, Havana, published a map listing unsolved homicides throughout France. There are 28 in total in the South region.
At the heart of the Nanterre judicial court operates the center dedicated to the treatment of serial or unsolved crimes. Created on March 1, 2022 at the initiative of the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, it is responsible for cases commonly called “cold cases”.
Concretely, its mission consists of examining unsolved criminal cases and disappearances within 18 months after the facts. It can also identify issues likely to see progress, either through new testimonies or elements, but also through avenues not yet explored, or through developments in scientific techniques.
During the launch in 2022, the Minister of Justice announced at the same time that 173 investigations fell within this field of competence. Last March, a report drawn up by Benjamin Deparis, president of the Nanterre judicial court, reported 385 cases studied by the prosecution. The investigating judges took charge of 88 of them, which led to five indictments and a final conviction, that of Monique Olivier, the wife of Michel Fourniret.
Affairs that have gone under the radar?
Here is the update with the official figures. But this subject of “cold cases” is still difficult to materialize, both because of the passage of time and the legal procedures, which can be long, lead to a dismissal of the case for “lack of elucidation” or even go completely unanswered. radars.
In an attempt to list these files, sometimes more than 50 years old, Avane, the association providing assistance to victims of unsolved cases, worked to publish a map tracing all these cases.
Quoted by Days, it allows us to see that in France, 377 surveys have to date found no response. A number surely underestimated, since it is not official and is based solely on public information.
We owe this mapping to Benoit de Maillard, a former forensic technician, but also to Didier Seban, a specialist lawyer, and to Jacques Dallest, a former prosecutor who is now retired. Several figures from the legal world joined forces, using enlightened amateur means to carry out this project.
Four pending cases in the Alpes-Maritimes
The map shows us that currently, 28 cases remain pending in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. In the Alpes-Maritimes, we notice four: those of the assassinations of Ariane Guillot in Nice (2001) and of an unidentified woman in Grasse (2012). Two reports of disappearance were also reported in 1982 (John Berthe, Théoule-sur-Mer) and in 1991 (Marie-Hélène Audoye, Cagnes-sur-Mer).
In the Var, ten files are recorded, including four in Castellet, around Chemin du Cros-du-Loup. In Toulon, a worrying disappearance, that of Marina Rossi (2001). There are seven cases in Bouches-du-Rhône, including three in Marseille, including that of the murder of Frédéric Sturlesi, journalist, in 2010. Three other cases exist in Vaucluse and in Alpes-de-Haute -Provence, as well as a last one, for the South region, in Veynes, in the Hautes-Alpes.
