It was the cleaning lady who made the discovery on April 29, 2022, in the afternoon. That day, she was contacted by the station manager at Bergerac station, in Dordogne, who himself had been alerted by a passenger reporting blood in the toilets. “Probably a fight,” he said to himself at the time. When she sees a body covered in toilet paper in the toilet bowl, the cleaner first thinks of a doll. Until she touched it with her finger. Four days later, Nathalie Bost, a 19-year-old woman, was arrested in the gynecological department of Périgueux hospital and placed in police custody for murder of a minor under 15 years old.
This Thursday, January 23, she is tried before the Dordogne Assize Court, where she faces a maximum sentence of thirty years in prison. The child’s father, his partner at the time, also appears for not having prevented the crime, an offense punishable by seven years in prison.
Pregnancy
When Nathalie Bost was born in 2002, her father already had six children from a previous union, and her mother two others. The family quickly separates. Over the years, the young girl grew up with one or other of her parents. Schooled in Bergerac, she was following training at Afpa in Boulazac, near Périgueux, at the time of the events.
During the investigation, her trainers described a woman as fragile, vulnerable, showing little emotion, and above all pregnant. A state that she denies at first, before accepting it. She then explains that she is receiving medical monitoring. Those close to her say that the young woman is a shifty, confused and annoyed person. Quickly, her rounded belly betrays her situation. Nathalie Bost finds a solution: this would be due to her scoliosis.
During his various hearings, his attitude remained changeable on the subject. What perception did she have of it? The experts who examined her are divided: one of the psychiatrists mentions a partial denial of pregnancy, when a psychologist excludes it while speaking of repression.
In the station
In 2022, Nathalie Bost lives as a couple with Cédric Linares, aged 40, father three times from a previous union. He is portrayed as angry and aggressive by those around him. The description of his relationship with the young woman fluctuated during the investigation and the hearings. Sometimes he declares himself under the influence of his partner, sometimes he claims to command the couple. Did he know she was pregnant? Without formally admitting it, he said he suspected it.
On April 29 of the same year, both went to Bergerac for an appointment with the forty-year-old’s doctor to renew his treatment for epilepsy. Living in Lalinde, they take the train. Once the meeting is over, they wait at the SNCF station.
-Since the morning, Nathalie has suffered from severe vomiting, she relieves herself in the station toilets. This is where she gives birth. Among her later, variable statements, she claims to have heard and seen her child live. When she comes out of the bathroom, bloody and with a flat stomach, her companion doesn’t try to know why. He just supports her with his arm to climb onto the train.
The investigation had already started when they returned home but, the Bergerac station being devoid of video surveillance, the police began by touring the hospitals, nursing services, midwives… The day after the events, the press takes over the matter. Later used by investigators, the phones of Nathalie Bost and Cédric Linares showed that they had done extensive research on the subject on the Internet.
Born alive
Subsequently, the testimonies poured in. A midwife, in particular, informs that she met a woman from Lind who was visibly pregnant but who refused to be pregnant. This is confirmed by the Bergerac hospital, allowing the police to tighten their investigations.
At the same time, the autopsy of the baby found dead reveals that the infant was born alive, at 37 weeks (the average is 40.5 weeks). No trace of a blow was noted and death by drowning was confirmed. Other analyzes would later establish that her parents were indeed Nathalie Bost and Cédric Linares.
The day she gave birth, Nathalie Bost returned to Afpa, her stomach flat and haggard. There, she confided that she had given birth three days earlier in the hospital. Before recognizing that it was in the toilets of Bergerac station. She was then taken to Périgueux hospital which, observing her condition, alerted the police. The young woman was finally arrested on May 3.
