Four years later, the moment that the loved ones of Victorine Dartois, 18, found dead drowned in a stream in 2020, had been waiting for, has finally arrived. This Monday the trial opens, in Grenoble (Isère), of one of his neighbors who admitted the murder but who denies any attempted rape.
Ludovic B., 29, faces life imprisonment. He will be tried for two weeks by the Isère Assize Court.
A suspect already known to the courts
This affair caused a stir throughout France, particularly in the village of Villefontaine where the young woman lived with her family. On September 26, 2020, Victorine, a BTS student, was walking home after a day of shopping with her friends. At 6:50 p.m., she called her family to say she was arriving “in 20 minutes” but she disappeared near a stadium, adjacent to a wooded area.
This area runs along the Turitin stream, shallow and cluttered with branches, where his body was discovered less than 48 hours later, his pants nearby. The autopsy findings mentioned bruising to the neck and confirmed the young woman's strangulation and death by drowning.
Twenty days after the events, a suspect was arrested in Villefontaine thanks to the report of a relative in whom he had confided. This is Ludovic B., a business manager, aged 25 at the time of the events, who had already been convicted ten times for common law offenses but without being imprisoned thanks to reduced sentences. .
In police custody, he claimed to have encountered the victim while jogging. After an involuntary shove, then an argument, he allegedly “panicked” and “squeezed the neck” of the student before hiding her inanimate body in a torrent. He also admitted to having “used cocaine” that day.
The victim's family could speak out
Even though he denies any sexual motive, he is indicted for murder preceded by attempted rape. For the sake of justice, he would have removed the young girl's pants but would have been hampered by the young woman's resistance and the arrival of a third party. His defense should not vary during the trial even if he is “ready to say things” and intends to address the victim's family from the start, said his lawyer, Me Arnaud Adelise, on BFMTV at the beginning of November.
For his part, Me Kelly Monteiro, who has defended Victorine Dartois's relatives since the start of the case, did not wish to speak before the trial, but indicated that the family would speak “as part of the legal debates”.
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