Philippine disappeared on Friday September 20 in Paris, before her lifeless body was found the next day in the Bois de Boulogne.
Taha O., suspected of having raped and killed the young woman, was arrested on Tuesday in Geneva (Switzerland).
The suspect was previously arrested for a rape committed in 2019.
Frédéric Lauze, president of the union of national police commissioners (SCPN), who tracked him down at the time, tells us.
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Philippine, 19, killed in Paris: an investigation and questions
Six days after the discovery of the young woman’s lifeless body in the Bois de Boulogne and while her funeral will take place on Friday, September 27 in Versailles, this affair continues to move the country and beyond our borders. Tuesday, September 24, after four days of searching (new window)the alleged perpetrator, Taha O., a 22-year-old Moroccan subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF), was arrested in the canton of Geneva. The French judicial authorities have since filed an extradition request in order to question him.
Already condemned
The individual is not unknown to the police and the justice system. He was in fact convicted in 2021 for a rape committed in 2019 in a forest in Taverny (Val-d’Oise) shortly after his arrival via Spain on French soil. He was released “at the end of the sentence” in June 2024, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Frédéric Lauze, former head of the Val-d’Oise police and now president of the union of national police commissioners (SCPN), tracked him down at that time and had him arrested. According to him, the suspect in Philippine’s murder and rape was already “very determined”. “Fortunately the criminal brigade of the police headquarters did a remarkable job with great responsiveness and professionalism because otherwise, we would still have a monster on the street”he said this Thursday on LCI.
“Exceptional composure”
When he heard the news and the identity of the suspect, the police officer explained on our channel that he first thought of Philippine, then of the first victim of this alleged predator.who got away with it because she showed exceptional composure.”
“In 2019, I was the departmental director of public security in Val-d’Oise and the Val-d’Oise departmental security had handled this case. We had gathered the evidence to convict this perpetrator thanks to a victim who showed exceptional composure,” he repeats.
“Because after this despicable act of rape of which she was the victim in a wood in Taverny, a wood which resembled the Bois de Boulogne where Philippine was killed, this victim who was a student understood that she risked dying, that the rape could end in murder and she managed to save her life by disarming and speaking with her attacker. This had also won the admiration of all the investigators”still remembers Frédéric Lauze, upset.
“He knew what he wanted”
Regarding Taha O., the president of the union of national police commissioners (SCPN) assures that the young man was already in 2019, when he was only 17 years old, a “very determined author”. “He knew what he wanted. He wanted to rape this student,” he insists.
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“She (the first victim, editor’s note) managed to handle it and she really felt like she had missed something much more serious. And we realize that five years later, she had a real intuition on the matter,” concludes the policeman.
