Fadela, in her fifties, has been missing since November 4 and a party lasting several days in the town of Biert in Ariège. A suspect, a former soldier, is indicted for murder and imprisoned, without the body of the fifty-year-old being found.
A sealed barn with the word “homicide” written on a cardboard, and around it, a few caravans. An isolated site, used to hosting private parties and rave parties in the woods, in the town of Biert in Ariège. This is where we last saw Fadela, known as “Fafa”, 50 years old, originally from Castres in Tarn and recently living with her husband in the hamlet of Eycherboul, in the neighboring town of Massat. She took part in a party which lasted at least two days and brought together some 80 people, between non-stop music, alcohol and drugs, until Monday November 4 when Fadela disappeared.
It was his companion who raised the alarm on Thursday, November 7.
A marginal friend, former soldier
The searches undertaken initially focused on an accident, or a runaway, but on Monday November 11, the investigation turned towards the criminal trail with several consistent facts pointing to François P., a forty-year-old former Alpine hunter living in self-sufficient in a cabin near Biert, unknown to the justice system and described as “very friendly” and “without incident” by the villagers and other witnesses. He lives separated from his wife and his 16-year-old son, who both live near Saint-Girons. François P. knew Fadela and participated in the party, but according to his lawyer Mr. Guy Dedieu, “they are two friends, nothing more, nothing less.”
Audio recording of an argument
These facts which identified the former soldier to the investigators consist of a testimony from an acquaintance of “Fafa” saying that she felt threatened, reveals La Dépêche du Midi. But above all, an audio recording on which Fadela argues with someone, obviously a man. During this moment, the fifty-year-old telephoned a relative so that he could hear the argument, the causes of which remain unclear, but these clues apparently were sufficient for the investigating judge Inès Gharbi of the criminal division of the judicial court of Toulouse to indict François P. for murder and place him in detention at the Foix remand center.
He denies everything
“My client understands the stakes of this procedure and is not surprised that he is being asked to account, but he says he is innocent,” insists his lawyer. If he is (perhaps) the last to have seen Fadela, he does not formally recognize being the person with whom the fifty-year-old argued. According to Me Guy Dedieu, his client “had no reason to want to make an attempt on this woman’s life”.
Research, interrogations, a race against time
The fact remains that the gendarmes' searches to find Fadela or his body (since there is an indictment for murder) are still at a standstill, despite the resources deployed over a large and difficult to access area. Finding his trace is essential to advance the investigation but the arrival of snow in the Pyrenees in the coming days could complicate the task.
As for the numerous interrogations, they are still continuing, while several analyzes noted on the alleged site of the homicide are awaited by the investigators of the Toulouse research section.
