In a testimony given to Le Figaro, Delphine Daviet-Ropital evokes the persistent pain after the murder of her daughter Lola, found in a trunk in Paris in October 2022, and her desire for justice in the face of growing insecurity in France.
Two years after the murder of her daughter Lola, Delphine Daviet-Ropital is still living a nightmare. On October 14, 2022, little Lola, barely 12 years old, was found lifeless in a trunk, not far from her home in Paris. His mother spoke for the first time to Le Figaro.
“She was my life, my ray of sunshine,” confides Delphine Daviet-Ropital. The young girl, described as cheerful and full of life, was an aerobic gymnastics champion. “We were inseparable,” she remembers, adding that “recently, I started putting photos of Lola in my house and looking at them.”
Her husband did not survive the death of his daughter
Lola’s death was a terrible blow for the whole family. Her husband, unable to overcome this tragedy, allowed himself to fall into alcoholism until his death last February. “We did everything, but there was nothing more we could do. He was really in his world,” she explains.
The trial of Dahbia Benkired, scheduled for 2025, is an additional ordeal. “I feel a lot of anger towards this person. I hope the trial can help me understand the why and the how,” she says.
“She shouldn’t have been there.”
The controversy surrounding the suspect’s OQTF status and the questions it raises rekindle her pain. “She shouldn’t have been there, everyone knows that. It reinforces my anger,” she says.
Faced with rising violence, Delphine calls for radical change. “Young people are no longer safe,” she exclaimed following Philippine’s murder. “We also need people who have nothing to do with us to stay at home,” she asserts, while 84% of French people are in favor of the systematic imprisonment of foreigners, under the influence of an OQTF perpetrators of crimes and misdemeanors, before their expulsion, according to a CSA survey.
This tragedy left indelible marks in his life: “Everything was shattered. I will always have this scar,” she confides. She claims to be incapable of “working again” but thanks to her son Thibault: “If my son wasn’t there, I wouldn’t be here anymore.”
Dahbia Benkired, 26, was indicted by the Paris prosecutor’s office for the murder, rape and barbaric acts of the young Lola, found dead in October 2022. The suspect, who was the subject of an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) for two months, had been arrested after surveillance videos showed her entering the building with Lola. Dahbia Benkired faces life imprisonment.
