Sète sailor Christian Couronne disappeared six months ago when his sailboat exploded between Sète and Agde. Found in December off the coast of Agde. His family is demanding his body from the courts.
“We want to be able to mourn!” The family of Christian Couronne no longer knows which authority to turn to in order to finally be able to bury the former Sète sailor well known in the Thau basin, former diver, mechanic officer of the merchant navy and rescuer at sea. Since the shipwreck of his 15 m sailboat, following an explosion on October 12, 2023, his relatives have almost no official information.
DR
Christian Couronne had disappeared at sea after the unexplained explosion of his boat in an area between Sète and Agde, around ten kilometers from the coast. Despite searches carried out over long hours and the following days, his body could not be found immediately. But on December 6, a trawler recovered a body off the coast of Agde. Relatives immediately made the connection with the Sétois whose ship sank in the area. But justice still had to formally identify him. The autopsy carried out in December did not allow this to be done. “We were finally asked to provide personal information from Christian to be able to compare his DNA. We didn’t really understand since at the beginning, we were told that this would not be necessarytestifies Virginie, one of the daughters of Mr. Couronne’s second wife, Angèle. We sent the elements on January 25 and nothing since!” Until April 5.
“We are not kept informed at all about when we will recover the body”
“My husband went to the gendarmerie every 15 days to find out where the justice system stood, indicates Vanessa Couronne, the wife of Christian Couronne’s son. Friday April 5, a police officer told us that the body was indeed that of my husband’s father. And they knew it since March!”
The family is awaiting answers from the Montpellier public prosecutor’s office
When contacted, the Béziers public prosecutor’s office, which was responsible for the investigation concerning the identification of the body recovered on December 6, confirmed to us that “LThe analyzes carried out as part of the procedure led by my prosecution confirmed that it was the body of Mr. Couronne“, indicates the public prosecutor of Béziers, Raphaël Balland. Before adding: “I have therefore relinquished this part of the investigation in favor of the Montpellier public prosecutor’s office, which is now the only competent authority due to the location of the shipwreck, the link now being established between the discovery of this body and the shipwreck. Asked in turn, the Montpellier public prosecutor’s office did not answer our questions about the restitution of the body, nor about the results of the investigation into the reasons for the shipwreck for which it is responsible.
“I don’t know if we can imagine the family’s despair”
Same incomprehension for Virginie:“We are not kept informed at all as to when we will recover the body. We were assured that we would have news before the end of the week (last, Editor’s note), that a substitute or an association for the victims would keep us informed, but we still have nothing, even though they have known since March 11 that the body is that of Christian, this is not normal. she laments after also going with her mother to the gendarmerie. For the two women and all those close to Christian Couronne, the wait is unbearable: “I don’t know if we can imagine the family’s despair, we all share the same pain! On April 12, it was six months since it happened. I wouldn’t wish what we’re experiencing on anyone, It’s truly inhumane.” summarizes Vanessa Couronne.
Bruised by absence and waiting, the Crowns urgently demand “a human contact to help us, because we don’t even know where Christian’s body is, it’s horrible. We no longer know which saint to turn to”, continues Vanessa Couronne. At an impasse, the families still do not have a death certificate and still cannot plan the funeral.
