Death of Amandine: “She started to ‘foam’ at the mouth”… the last moments of life of the 13-year-old girl, deprived of food

It was a strong testimony that was delivered this Wednesday, January 22, at the Hérault Assize Court. Ambre, 19, returned in detail to the last moments of life of her sister Amandine, 13, who died of starvation and tortured by her mother Sandrine Pissarra. The teenager was found lifeless and considerably thin – she weighed only 28 kg – on August 6, 2020, at the family home in Montblanc (Hérault), near Béziers.

Born in 2005, a year before Amandine, Ambre is now 19 years old and works in a bar in the region, explains Agence France Presse. It was as a civil party that she was questioned on Wednesday. “On August 6, 2020, I get up and I see mom in a panic. She tells me that Amandine is very bad. Jean-Michel – the stepfather – helps Amandine upstairs, then I wash her in the shower. Amandine was trying to talk to me, but I didn’t understand”, says the young woman with machine gun flow and without apparent emotion. “Then I dressed her and placed her on the bed. Mom said she was going to get the car to take her to the hospital. Amandine started foaming at the mouth. Jean-Michel took her placed in the safety position, I said: let it go, she died. Then the firefighters came up, she was in cardiac arrest,” she continues.

Also read:
Amandine, 13, died of starvation: the teenager “went through hell…” Her mother and stepfather tried at the assizes from Monday

In the dock, Sandrine Pissarra, who admitted on Tuesday for the first time the facts with which she is accused, approves this story: “I would like to thank her, she was able to say what really happened.” “I don’t want anyone to think that Ambre is lying. But that day, I woke up late and Amandine was already upstairs,” maintains Jean-Michel Cros. Because she wanted at all costs to avoid her mother ending up in prison, Ambre, then 15 years old, admitted to having lied a lot, serving to investigators the version developed by Sandrine Pissarra of a “thief, hypocrite and vicious” Amandine. suffering from eating disorders and certainly died of a “wrong way”.

Naked to do housework

In fact, Ambre now explains, “we didn’t often see Amandine, who was always downstairs, in the storage room”, from which she only came out “to clean, first in a t-shirt, then naked, to prevent her from stealing from the snack cupboard. Amandine, still punished, was forced to “make lines” or stay “on the picket”, her only activities, which Sandrine Pissarra, busy knitting in the living room, monitored from her phone or tablet using cameras. When the rest of the family went out, “mom would lock the door,” explains Ambre.

Also read:
Amandine, 13 years old, died of starvation: “It’s a scene of fear…” Her father describes the physical state of the young girl in the morgue

His younger brother, Ethan, now 15 years old, was like Ambre responsible for watching Amandine: “She used me as a guard,” he explains, when called to the stand in his turn. “My mother used to hit my sister’s head against the wall. She was often naked when she was cleaning and when she did it badly, she hit her. I was only hit two or three times a month. For me , it was normal to get hit. I still love my mother, but not as much as before, my mother will take her punishment, she deserves it. “Amandine was my sister, I didn’t have much contact with her, she was often locked up. I knew she wasn’t eating, so I gave her food under the door. After August 6, she “It’s as if my mother was relieved, as if Amandine had never existed.”

Also read:
Amandine, 13 years old, died of starvation: “I admit”… mother Sandrine Pissarra, admits “acts of torture and barbarity” on her daughter

The two accused must be questioned one last time on Thursday, before the prosecution’s indictment and the pleadings. Sandrine Pissarra faces life imprisonment, Jean-Michel Cros faces 30 years in prison. The verdict is expected on Friday.