A farm transformed into a fortress worthy of “Fort Knox”. It is there, in Amblainville, in Oise, that Caroline Peinado y Ortega moves in at the beginning of summer 2018. Very quickly, the 34-year-old young woman noticed that her owner, who also lived in the complex divided into several apartments, was exhibiting strange behavior.
“She realized that her lease was not legally signed,” says her mother Marie-Christine Le Nen in Voices of Crime. And its owner wanted to be paid in cash. She found him very intrusive. And then until she realized he had come homethat he had the duplicate of all the keys.”
Worried, Caroline decides to alert the gendarmerie in Méru, the town next door. The soldiers advise him to come and file a complaint as quickly as possible. On August 21, she left her house and noticed that the badge that allowed her to come and go on the farm was deactivated. She calls the police, and sees her owner, Jean-Luc Dupond, taking a weapon out of his trunk. She does not have time to react, the man shoots her in the chest.
At the same time, I had a presentiment of it and at the same time we don’t want to believe it
Marie-Christine Le Nen
Shortly before, on the phone, the gendarme had asked Caroline to take a photo of the weapon. “In any case, that’s all we see in the minutes, in the reports in the file, explains Marie-Christine Le Nen. And Caroline tells them, ‘I’m going to come then, since the owner I’m going…’ And there, as soon as she hung up, in the minutes that followed, the police received a call from neighbors saying they had heard screams and a gunshot.”
In a few minutes, Jean-Luc Dupond hid Caroline’s body in a shed on the farm and took refuge until the police intervened. He was finally arrested, placed in police custody and indicted for intentional homicide. Caroline’s parents are informed. “I think everything is collapsing. This man… At the same time, I had a presentiment of it and at the same time we don’t want to believe it… It’s the sky that is falling,” confides , moved, the victim’s mother.
Added to this drama is a decisive outcome: two days after being detained, Jean-Luc Dupond ends his life in prison. “It’s an anvil on the head,” continues Marie-Christine Le Nen. According to the penal code, the death of the suspect means the extinction of legal action, and therefore, of investigations. But the bereaved mother cannot bring herself to this conclusion and decides to start a fight which still lasts today.
We had to wait for the new judge and 2022 to get authorization to cremate my daughter. If that’s not abuse, what is?
Marie-Christine Le Nen
In 2019, a year after Caroline’s death, the investigating judge in charge of the case wanted to close the case without further action. This was without taking into account the determination of Marie-Christine Le Nen and her lawyer, Me Juliette Chapelle, who constantly requested action to keep the case open. The two women denounce “judicial mistreatment”. “We had to wait for the new judge and 2022 to get authorization to cremate my daughter. If that’s not abuse, what is it?” Marie is indignant -Christine Le Nen.
Finally, this new investigating judge agrees to receive Caroline’s mother. She arrives with a list of 20 questions. “When did he obtain this weapon? From whom? Had he made known his deadly intentions?” she asks. “Could other people have incited him to commit this crime? Was he able to receive help before, during, after?”
Today, all these questions remain unanswered. However, Marie-Christine Le Nen obtained a small victory. The State was condemned by the Versailles Court of Appeal: the defibrillator used in prison to try to resuscitate Jean-Luc Dupond after his suicide was defective. The State has decided to appeal to the Court of Cassation.
>> Voices of Crime are lawyers, investigators, close to victims, suspects or culprits. These key witnesses speak to RTL journalists. Unpublished testimonies, which shed new light on justice and the major criminal cases of today.
Twice a month, one of these Voices of Crime tells us their point of view on a criminal case. An RTL podcast.
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