Thursday May 12, 2022, Bastien Picard, 18, returns home. The ground floor is immersed in an orange-colored mist. There is no noise. The young man runs upstairs. The office door is covered in traces of soot. Inside, he is seized by the smell of burning. Bastien then sees his little sister, Célia, ten years old, inanimate.
The firefighters were quickly on scene, but it’s too late. Celia is dead. She has burns on her arms, face and hair. The first findings suggest an accidental fire. The emergency doctor, however, notices suspicious marks around the neck. The autopsy will specify that she was brutally grabbedthen hit. It is abouta murder.
Friday May 13, the day after the discovery of Célia’s body, the gendarmes launch a search to find a trace of the father of the family, Cyrille Picard, 52 years old. He is the only one who has not shown up for 24 hours. His phone is on voicemail. His car is nowhere to be found. The father left with Tyson, the house dog. Two weeks ago, the wife, Alexandra, announced to her husband that she was leaving him. “The morning of the day Célia died, he told me thathe wanted to spend time with her to enjoy his daughter because he was going to Charente”, indicates the wife.
Thursday January 18, 2024, one year and eight months after the murder, Cyrille Picard headlines the campaign “Most wanted” – most wanted people – launched by Europol. The goal is to collect any information on the individual who has no longer given any signs of life. No bank transactions, no testimonials, no telephone activity.
A foot found on a beach
Friday February 16, 2024, one year and nine months after the murder of little Célia, walkers make a macabre discovery on a beach at Pointe de la Coubre, in Les Mathes, a town 17 kilometers from Royan. It is a human foot severed at the ankle which is still wearing its sneaker. This human remains belong to Cyrille Picard. Experts cannot say precisely how the limb was torn off.
“We can live with a mutilated foot, but this foot must have been removed surgically to live in good conditions. We know that the foot was found in a place where over 6 km there are masses rubbish, branches and in the event of an impact, the foot came off. I rather have the feeling that Picard is dead, indicates Me George Rimondi, lawyer for Alexandra, Célia’s mother. When we talk about the foot, we must understand thatBones were found in the sock. DNA research confirmed that it was Cyrille Picard. The foot was still very disintegrated so we can think that the death was relatively old.”
Investigators recall that he is a very good sailor. Experts do not rule out the possibility of an injury inflicted by a propeller boat. Cyrille Picard’s wife, Alexandra, and his two sons, Antony and Bastien, still wondering about the day of May 12, 2022 and the death of little Célia.
Guests from “Hour of Crime”
– Eric Pelletier, senior reporter at France Télévision and police/justice specialist.
– Me George Rimondi, lawyer at the Thonon-Les-Bains bar, lawyer for Alexandra, Célia’s mother and ex-wife of Cyrille Picard.
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