murder of jogger Caroline Marcel, one year after the suspect’s arrest, where is the investigation?

In January 2024, the suspect Stanislas A. was indicted and placed in detention for the murder of jogger Caroline Marcel found in 2008 in the Loiret river. A year later, the man still denies the facts, but where is the judicial investigation?

A year ago, in January 2024, a man was arrested, suspected of having killed Caroline Marcel, whose body was found in 2008 in the Loiret river in Olivet, near Orléans. Where has the investigation been since?

This evening of June 22, 2008 around 8 p.m., Caroline Marcel jogs along the Loiret, but she will never return… The next day, her body is discovered by students from a class who have come to have a picnic on the edge of the river. water with their teacher. Aged around forty in 2008, she was found half submerged in the river.

The autopsy quickly confirmed a violent death and the theory of rape preceded by murder was confirmed.

The victim died of strangulation and was placed in the Loiret when she was already dead, she did not die by drowning.

Isabelle Toulemonde, public prosecutor of Orléans in 2008.

For many years, the investigation stalled, “lack of witnesses and material elements”. In 2022, it is transmitted to the “cold cases” center of the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office (Hauts-de-Seine), specializing in unresolved cases andt to serial crimes.

The keys to the car of the victim found in the water were then re-analyzed and a trace of DNA was discovered: that of Stanislas A. This man, aged 34, had already been convicted of sexual assault in 2005 when he was a minor.

At the time of the events, in 2008, Stanislas A., then aged around 18, was working as a landscaper near Orléans.

The equipment has evolved enormously, the sequencing is much more precise than it could be at the time. Using partial DNA, we can find individuals who were already in the file at a certain time, but who could not be identified.

Arnaud Loctin, national delegate for the scientific police alliance – 2024.

In January 2024, 16 years after the events, Stanislas A. was arrested in Pamiers (Ariège) in the southwest of France where he lived with his wife and two-year-old daughter. Indicted and imprisoned, the suspect still denies the facts.

Last September, the detainee requested his release, which was refused. According to the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office, the individual is still in prison.

The security measure of his pre-trial detention has even been extended by six months. The investigation is still in progress. In the coming months, new witness hearings are expected to take place.