The meanders of the Seine and the chalk cliffs of Andelys (Eure) have jealously guarded their mysteries for almost 28 years. Since that day in June 1995, when an iron trunk had been taken out of the river, opening on a decapitated and dismembered body. That of a woman. The first chapter of a file that has known as many turns as the Seine offers at this place.
First because it took two years to give a name to this human trunk, that of Corinne Di Dio, and then because the investigation has just experienced an unexpected twist this Tuesday, May 23 with the placement in police custody of a 77-year-old woman. The septuagenarian, arrested in a village in Yvelines near Rambouillet, may hold the keys to an enigma where disturbing characters and a complex romantic relationship intersect.
Back in June 1995. Corinne Di Dio, 37, is a sales representative at Bouygues. She leaves her offices in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines by car to return home. No one will ever see her again. Nine days later, an iron trunk which floats on the Seine is brought back to the banks, very close to Andelys in the Eure. The dismembered body inside is very degraded. At the time, the means of the technical and scientific police were quite far from current standards and there was no existing DNA file in France. Eure is not in the Paris region and no connection is made with the disappearance of Corinne in Yvelines, yet very close. It will take two years to realize that the dismembered of the Seine is indeed Corinne Di Dio.
A relationship with a robber and a drug dealer
The criminal brigade of the judicial police of Versailles did not wait for this rapprochement to work on the environment of the disappeared. Friends and colleagues are heard. Above all, the investigators discover that Corinne does not have an “uneventful” life. In the early 1990s she had a relationship with a certain Antonio Marquez, a touchy thirtysomething born in Belgium and of Spanish origin. In Spain, Antonio is known to be a bank robber and a drug dealer. When he met Corinne, he moved to the Paris region where he works in the markets. From their short idyll will be born a son in 1991. A boy who will become a stake when the couple separates.
Antonio disappears with the child towards Spain. He was recaptured in 1994 and imprisoned in France. Corinne, who has filed a complaint for “abduction of a minor”, recovers her son and his sole custody. The little boy nevertheless continues to see Antonio’s family, in particular his mother-in-law Marie-Thérèse, settled in the Yvelines, who keeps him from time to time. Marie-Thérèse apparently tries to reconcile Corinne and Antonio. Without success. Corinne no longer wants Antonio to approach her son.
During their investigation, the police will discover that at the time of Corinne’s disappearance in 1995, the trend was not at all towards reconciliation. Antonio – and therefore Marie-Thérèse – are in great danger of being deprived of the child. This fear may constitute the beginning of a motive, but no other objective element can implicate them in the disappearance and barbaric murder of Corinne.
From fear to hate
Years later, almost a quarter of a century to be precise, other elements were collected by crime investigators. The child would not be the only point of tension. Corinne was also suspected by Marie-Thérèse of having an intimate relationship with a brother of Antonio, who was none other than Marie-Thérèse’s partner. Real or not, this story seems to have moved Marie-Thérèse from fear to hatred.
It is the combination of these elements and the testimonies that led the investigating judge in charge of the case and the police to arrest him this Tuesday, May 23 to question him. They suspect her of having ordered the murder of Corinne. At 77, she does not have the profile of a quiet granny. She is known from the judicial documentation for outrages, forgery, but especially armed robbery committed in the past. His record and that of his son-in-law Antonio in any case reveal a fairly marked anchoring in crime.
Antonio, who had rebuilt his life in Spain… after recovering the son he had had with Corinne, again fell into the nets of the local police in 2017. He was wanted for a vast drug trafficking, where cannabis was apparently trading by the ton. He was heard on the spot by French investigators about the murder of his “ex”, but without ever being implicated. The arrest and the suspicions which weigh today on his mother-in-law could well plunge him once again into the troubled waters of the Seine.
