Mohammed Chahbar, a 62-year-old retiree, was indicted this Monday by the “cold cases” unit of the Nanterre court (Hauts-de-Seine) for the murders of Nathalie Boyer and Laïla Afif, the prosecution said. These two cases, which are part of the “disappeared from Isère”, have remained unsolved since 1988 and 2000 respectively.
Mohammed Chahbar was confused thanks to DNA traces found on objects linked to the murder of Laïla Afif, a mother shot in the neck whose body was discovered in the Bourbre canal in La Verpillière (Isère). ) in May 2000. In addition, witnesses had reported at the time a white Citroën BX, owned by Mohammed Chahbar, roaming the scene. These elements come in addition to a proven closeness with the two victims.
Concerning Nathalie Boyer, a 15-year-old girl found with her throat slit in August 1988 in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier (Isère), Mohammed Chahbar resided at the time in the same neighborhood. Testimonies report that he had been seen following young women and prowling around his home. “Nathalie's family lived a few hundred meters from Momo. The whole neighborhood knows it. On several occasions, he was almost beaten up because he was too enterprising with women”said a former neighbor in Dauphiné.
The suspect knew Laïla Afif
Dounia, Laïla Afif's daughter, confirmed that the suspect knew her family well. “His wife at the time was a friend of Mom's. The two families knew each other well. It happened that Mr. Chahbar offered his services to Mom to help her with shopping.”she confided. This proximity would have been denied by the suspect during his custody.
Nathalie Boyer, for her part, disappeared on August 2, 1988 in Villefontaine (Isère), not far from the home of Mohammed Chahbar. According to investigators, the two victims were approached in bus shelters, which reinforces the thesis of a similar modus operandi.
Arrested last Monday in Dijon (Côte-d'Or) where he had lived for several years, Mohammed Chahbar was placed in police custody for 96 hours by the gendarmes of the Grenoble Research Section. At the end of his interrogation before judge Sabine Khéris, he was indicted for these two murders and placed in pre-trial detention. His lawyers, Me Émilie Boyé and Me Pierre-Vincent Connault, affirm that he “strongly disputes the facts” and denounce “great suffering linked to this questioning of very old facts”.
From now on, investigations continue to explore the past of Mohammed Chahbar. Residents of Bourgoin-Jallieu (Isère) also reported that he was a colleague of the father of Charazed Bendouiou, a little girl who disappeared in 1987, a year before the murder of Nathalie Boyer. The retiree remains presumed innocent at this stage.
