The disappearance dates back to September 23, 2023. Lina, then 15, is heading to the Saint-Blaise-la-Roche train station in Bas-Rhin to take the train. Her mother sees her leave. Her boyfriend is waiting for her on the platform in Strasbourg. Between her home and the train station, Lina would have had to walk 2.9 kilometers. She will never arrive. The last sign of life from the teenager is a video message sent to her lover at 11:20 a.m. on September 23, 2023. Two minutes later, her phone stops beeping. Since then, there has been no trace of the teenager.
Weeks of searching, in vain
A report was first made for a worrying disappearance. Then a judicial investigation was opened for “kidnapping or sequestration”. The Saverne prosecutor relinquished the case to the Strasbourg public prosecutor’s office. For weeks, the gendarmerie searched the Plaine area, in vain.
From time to time, Lina’s mother, Fanny Groll, speaks out to try to advance the search for her daughter. In parallel with the disappearance, she recalls that a rape complaint filed by her daughter in June 2022 was dismissed by the Saverne public prosecutor’s office in spring 2023. In January 2024, the Strasbourg public prosecutor’s office finally opened a judicial investigation into acts of “rape of a minor” , “unrelated and distinct from that currently open on charges of kidnapping and criminal sequestration”specified Yolande Renzi, then prosecutor of Strasbourg, on February 4.
Lina’s DNA on strings
In July, investigators found genetic traces of Lina on the seat belt of a stolen vehicle. The gray Ford Puma was registered in Germany. Its driver, Samuel Gonin, was filmed filling up the car on September 21, 2023. Investigators then traced the case back to this 43-year-old man from Besançon, who committed suicide on July 10. Although the man left writings before killing himself (suicide is not in doubt), there is no evidence to link Lina to her disappearance. Investigators are continuing their search to see if the man may have been involved in other criminal or delinquent acts.
Acting Strasbourg prosecutor Alexandre Chevrier gave an update on the investigation on Thursday, September 19 at the Strasbourg courthouse. He first confirmed information from Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace: the teenager’s bag was found in the glove compartment – but without any trace of blood. However, two ropes were found in the trunk of the car, bearing the DNA of Lina and Samuel Gonin.
No evidence of premeditation
The GPS system of the grey Ford Puma was disconnected. The position of the vehicle was able to be determined thanks to the analysis of the multimedia system – less precise than the GPS, specifies the interim prosecutor. But this element does not presume the premeditation of a kidnapping, points out Alexandre Chevrier. “He was driving a stolen vehicle and therefore had a good reason to have disconnected the GPS system.”he specifies.
There is no evidence to suggest that a firearm was used. Knives were found in the car but they do not carry the teenager’s DNA. Furthermore, nothing links Samuel Gonin to Lina or her entourage: no telephone contact, no acquaintances in the area… It was also the first time that the man had been to this area, to the investigators’ knowledge.
20 gendarmes are leading the investigation
Based on the video surveillance cameras, Alexandre Chevrier explains that Samuel Gonin was the only user of the car, between the theft of the vehicle in August 2023 and its immobilization in Narbonne in January 2024 following a refusal to comply. The forty-year-old stole fuel several times and seemed to live in his car, given its condition. More broadly, the man had left his job and family in the summer of 2024 and traveled a lot in France, with no apparent logic from the analysis of the journeys made.
Following these discoveries, major searches were carried out in the Vosges and Haute-Saône, in vain. Questions remain as to why Lina got into or was forced into this car. A national investigation unit bringing together at least 20 gendarmerie officers has been working on the case since October 2023.
Unanswered questions
The blind spot, according to the prosecutor: “What was Samuel Gonin doing on this road? It is not a frequented crossing point nor a place where he had already been.” The suicide of the man from Besançon prevents us from understanding his motivations and the manifestation of the truth, explains Alexandre Chevrier. For the future, the priority is still to find Lina. As for finding her alive, the acting public prosecutor responds: “In theory, everything is still possible, but she has been missing for a year and has not given any sign of life.”
