How could a man who confessed to a crime escape justice? The question at the heart of this extract from “Sensitive Affairs” haunts a family from Pontcharra. Although the man they always suspected ended up admitting, 36 years later, to having killed Marie-Thérèse Bonfanti in 1986, the courts released him… because this murder would have prescribed.
Pontcharra, small town in Isère, end of 2022. Thirty-six years after the disappearance of Marie-Thérèse Bonfanti, the main suspect was arrested. He ended up confessing to having strangled her on May 22, 1986, and the victim’s body was found. Thanks to this arrest, investigators even hope to reopen another investigation into the disappearance of Marie-Ange Billoud.
After four decades of relentless research, the Bonfanti family is relieved to finally be able to pay their respects to the grave of Marie-Thérèse. But the person responsible for his misfortune could escape trial… and this, as legally as possible. In criminal matters, a crime committed before 2017 is prescribed after ten years. Since the end of the 1990s, no one can be convicted for the murder of Marie-Thérèse Bonfanti. This is what Yves Chatain’s lawyer argues. And he, incarcerated in 2022 in Grenoble prison, then demands his release.
This thought alone is unbearable for the Bonfantis, who counter-attack before the Court of Cassation. Their lawyer contests the statute of limitations in the event of disappearance. “No starting point of the prescription, pleads Me Bernard Boulloud, it should not be the day the person was killed, but the day the person was found, or the day of the confession. Until we find the body, we cannot know that there was a murder…”
This argument is intended to push back the prescription of the crime, but it does not convince the highest court. On November 28, 2023, she declared the murder of Marie-Thérèse Bonfanti prescribed. Yves Chatain can no longer be prosecuted, he leaves the Grenoble detention center and finds freedom. This release has another consequence: barely reopened, the investigation into the disappearance of Marie-Ange Billoud is suspended, Yves Chatain is not even heard. Free, but under judicial supervision, he settled in Savoie, just a few kilometers from the Bonfanti family.
Despite the obstacles, the Bonfantis refuse to give up. For their lawyer, “we don’t see how a murderer who admitted his crime, indicated where the body was (…), could not be tried, could not be criminally convicted.” And the latest legal twist in this case seems to prove him right… On December 6, the Lyon Court of Appeal was to close the proceedings against Yves Chatain. Cwhoop of drama: against the Court of Cassation, the Lyon judges rejected the limitation period in the Bonfanti case!
-Marie-Thérèse’s family now has only one wish: “That the trial can finally begin, and that Chatain can return to prison, since that is where he should go.” The latter appealed again to the Court of Cassation. Asked by “Affaires Sensitives”, he did not wish to speak.
It is during this year 2025 that the highest court will decide on the limitation period of the case, this time definitively. The resumption of another investigation into the disappearance of Marie-Ange Billoud depends on this decision…
Excerpt from “Disparues de Pontcharra: 36 years of mysteries”, to be seen on January 19, 2025 in “Sensitive Affairs”, a France Télévisions, France Inter and INA co-production, adapted from a France Inter program.
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