The 16-year-old died just over a year ago. Twelve months later, this difficult investigation continues. Justice is still looking for the perpetrator responsible for the fatal stabbing.
A year ago, on November 19, 2023, Thomas, 16, was stabbed to death during a ball in the village of Crépol, in Drôme. With already more than 350 hearings, fourteen men indicted, around 450 witnesses present at the evening and as many potential victims, DNA expertise, use of cellphone videos… The investigation is long and continues.
According to information from BFMTV, it is still impossible for justice to say with certainty who carried out the fatal stabbing.
“The big work that remains to be done is to determine the involvement of each person, it is a long-term job,” explains Me Bilel Hakkar, who is defending two people indicted.
Nine people in pre-trial detention
Fourteen young men are indicted for homicide and attempted intentional homicide committed by an organized gang. They are all young adults, between 18 and 22 years old. They risk life imprisonment. Among them, nine are in pre-trial detention today, five are free under judicial supervision.
They were arrested during two waves of arrests. A first two days after the events on November 21, 2023, where seven people were arrested in Toulouse while they were trying to flee (one was subsequently released because he had not participated in the evening) and two others in Romans-sur -Isère.
A second, on March 11, 2024 where eleven people were arrested, also in Romans sur Isère and its region. Five were indicted while the others were released without prosecution.
Testimonies that diverge and contradict each other
According to our information, a year after the tragedy, the author of the fatal stabbing of Thomas has still not been formally identified by the courts. Just like the perpetrator(s) of the other stabbings which injured four other people including the ball security guard.
Moreover, a recent medical expert report that BFMTV was able to consult failed to determine whether the injuries to Thomas and these four other victims were caused by a single weapon or several weapons. Which could have indicated if there was one or more perpetrators of the stabbings.
This investigation is exceptional in its scale: according to our information, the investigation file is already filled with more than 350 hearings. The Crépol ball welcomed around 450 participants, according to the gendarmes who intervened on site, therefore as many witnesses and even potential victims.
There are also so many people who gave accounts of what they saw, at a late hour, sometimes drunk. Testimonies therefore differ or lack precision.
In addition, the crime scene was “particularly degraded due to the large number of people having trampled the ground”, as the gendarmes wrote in their findings. There is also no CCTV camera in or in front of the village hall.
A long investigation
“Identification parades”, or “tapping”, have been carried out (i.e. acts by which several people are presented before a witness to see if he recognizes the suspect): but they have not been conclusive.
Due to the lack of direct video surveillance, two videos filmed by cell phones were examined by investigators. One inside the room and the other, lasting 35 seconds, outside. In the latter, we see people facing each other, then what appears to be the first stabbings. According to our information, these videos have been evaluated, to improve the quality and allow investigators to better recognize the attackers.
Forensic examinations, DNA and papillary samples (prints) were also carried out. The cars used by the suspects to flee are currently the subject of a scientific assessment, in order to see if an element inside could be decisive or even more precisely designate the culprits.
But even beyond being able to determine who stabbed you, you would already have to have the murder weapon or weapons. Indeed, according to our information, the only bladed weapons found to date are those which had been confiscated by the bouncer before the clashes and therefore not the one or those used to kill Thomas and injure the others. These were never found.
Even with these difficulties, the investigation is “advancing and progressing well” assures Me Guillaume Fort, whose firm is defending several accused. “We are getting closer to the truth (…), my clients are waiting for us to draw conclusions from the elements gleaned during the investigation” says the one who hopes that some of the suspects can be exonerated in the stabbings. Because if there are fourteen indicted, including nine in pre-trial detention, in the end they will perhaps not all be involved in the homicide and attempted homicide.
A new wave of hearings planned
In a criminal investigation like this, we can one day expect confrontations or even a reconstruction. However, we quickly see the logistical problem that this can pose. For confrontations: how to confront several hundred witnesses, victims with fourteen indicted? Will we have to hear all the versions?
For the reconstruction, the same problem arises. Usually, when justice organizes the reconstruction of a crime, it puts the protagonists back into the situation as many times as there are different versions. Here, what can we do when we know that the fourteen accused and hundreds of witnesses do not all agree? This could take a considerable amount of time.
What is certain is that the training continues. Moreover, a new wave of hearings is planned. “My client must be questioned again this week (from November 18 to 22, Editor's note)” confides Maître Romaric Chateau who is defending one of the suspects who is also in pre-trial detention. Other indictment lawyers also confirmed to BFMTV that their clients will be heard in the days following this anniversary date.
Hearings that could be decisive? This would be the case if one of the accused named the perpetrator(s) of the stabbings but this does not seem, for a year, to be their state of mind.
“Judicial time is different from media time (…). One year is not so surprising for a case of this nature,” explains Me Bilel Hakkar. For his part, Me Alexandre Farelly, the lawyer for Thomas' family, told BFMTV that “this temporality, when you were close to Thomas, does not enter into the equation”. “It’s a year for the legal procedure which we are able to understand because it is a complex matter,” he explains.
