Justice confirmed the referral to the Loire-Atlantique Assize Court of Ichsanna W. for the murder of Florent Grégoire, a young 28-year-old Frenchman, in 2016 in Andorra.
It is a file without a body, without confessions, but with sufficient evidence for a trial to be held. Friday September 20, the investigating chamber of the Rennes Court of Appeal confirmed the indictment order, issued by an investigating judge last June, which orders the dismissal of a 63-year-old Australian woman. for the “murder” of Florent Grégoire. This young Frenchman disappeared in Andorra in 2016. The trial before an assize court should be held in the coming months.
Florent Grégoire’s parents and loved ones have been waiting for answers for eight years. The 28-year-old young man, a former computer engineer, had chosen to travel. In the summer of 2016, he left the Nantes region for Spain to do woofing, this mode of travel consisting of working on a farm in exchange for room and board. In September of that year, he spent a few days at the Roser pension.
Florent Grégoire had warned his family that he would be returning to France to attend the wedding of friends. A wedding that he would not have missed, assures those around him. But since September 12, 2016, they have no longer heard from him. Shortly before 1 p.m. that day, the young man was filmed for the last time by a video surveillance camera, then he disappeared.
“The first investigations are laborious,” said a person close to the case. “There hasn’t been a murder for years in Andorra and the authorities are not very active.” A situation which will weigh on the rest of the investigation.
A companion unknown to those close to him
Very quickly Florent Grégoire’s relatives were contacted by a woman, Ichsanna W., introducing herself as his partner. She is an Australian, of Indonesian origin, 55 years old, who explains that she is a doctoral student in architecture, and whom no one had ever heard of until then. But she assures him, Florent is fine. In the absence of news of their son, the parents report the disappearance of their child, leading to the opening of an investigation.
If in France, the authorities take this matter seriously, the Andorran authorities quickly cease the search based on the declarations of Ichsanna W. assuring that she regularly receives SMS messages from the young man, without however being able to contact him, her calls being systematically forwarded to messaging, she said. In France, the investigation reveals that a large part of the fifty-year-old’s statements are false.
Already, justice has taken for granted that the SMS and emails signed by Florent, and addressed to Ichsanna W., were “tampered with”, according to the lawyer for the young man’s parents. “First she contacts those close to Florent G. saying that she is his partner, makes them believe that he is well, then uses his social networks and his email address by pretending to be him,” explains Me Loïc Cabioch. “She remains without explanation as to why she could have made them believe certain things.”
Video bank accounts
Ichsanna W. is the only one to have seen Florent leave, apart from the video surveillance images. Photos of the young man’s identity documents, license and bank card were also found in his cell phone. Photos taken several days after the disappearance of the young man. In these conditions, how could he have left Andorra, as she once explained to investigators?
Finally, the young man’s bank accounts were emptied in the weeks preceding his disappearance. A strange attitude for someone who lived very modestly, according to those around him. Three operations were carried out on September 9, 2016. In total, several thousand euros were withdrawn. “The family has no doubt about her involvement, there is a form of satisfaction that she was able to be arrested,” continues Mr. Cabioch.
little hope
The fifty-year-old was indeed arrested in November 2019, when she got off the plane at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Paris. Two days later, she was indicted for “kidnapping” and “forcible confinement” and placed in pre-trial detention. In 2023, she was also indicted for “murder”. Since then, she has always denied any involvement in the disappearance of Florent Grégoire, as her lawyer confirmed to us after the decision of the investigating chamber of the Rennes Court of Appeal.
Today, what matters to Florent’s parents is “to know what happened to their son”, notes their lawyer. It remains to be seen whether Ichsanna W. will agree to answer the court’s questions, she who was described as “making sure not to simplify things and providing no answers.” The delay at the start of the investigation also made it impossible to provide “elements to determine a place where the tragedy took place”, concludes a source close to the case.
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