More than eight and a half million pieces of information processed, hundreds of hearings, thousands of procedural documents… and a touch of luck. The mass of investigations to find the body of Lina, a teenager who disappeared in Alsace, was colossal for the gendarmerie investigators.
“It’s a somewhat unusual investigation due to the scale of the investigations it required,” notes General Dominique Lambert, deputy director of the judicial police, the day after the announcement of the results of the autopsy, which suggest that the young girl was strangled.
“More than 300 cars were the subject of an in-depth study, including around twenty very in-depth technical police findings. There were more than 400 hearings, more than 6,000 procedural documents, and the database of “The criminal analysis of this file contains almost 8 and a half million pieces of information, which is enormous”, he explains during an interview with AFP.
“The worst hypothesis”
Lina, 15, disappeared on a Saturday morning in September 2023 on a small, little-used road near her home, in Plaine (Bas-Rhin), a wooded town at the foot of the Vosges.
For investigators “This is the worst hypothesis.” underlines General Lambert, “that of the transient prowler, who has never been in the area, who has never returned there, who has no personal, family or friendly ties whatsoever in the area. Why did Samuel Gonin go to that place, at that time? Unfortunately, we will never know.”
The main suspect in Lina’s kidnapping and murder committed suicide in early July and will never be able to answer the many outstanding questions. We will never know how he managed to get Lina into his car, which he had previously stolen in Germany.
A car which will be found near Narbonne, where Samuel Gonin was arrested last January. The Ford Puma remained impounded for months.
This vehicle came onto the investigators’ radar because it had passed through the Schirmeck tunnel, a few kilometers from the place of Lina’s disappearance, on the morning of the incident. It was one of hundreds of vehicles checked.
The owner of the stolen car had been reimbursed by his insurance, and “the German insurer did not recover the vehicle”, notes Mr. Lambert. “This is what caused the vehicle to be left abandoned in this impound lot. In an investigation like this, it takes a lot, a lot, a lot of work, and then a little bit of luck at one point.”
“The stroke of luck in this case is that the car was not claimed by the insurer and that it remained impounded. Otherwise this lead would never have come to fruition: without the car, we could not have established an objective link between Samuel Gonin and the facts.”
Extremely meticulous research
The man, who had sunk into a life of drugs and wandering, “had worked at Ford for a while” and therefore knew this model that he had stolen well. He had deactivated the geolocation system. “This is also what delayed the identification of the car.”continues Mr. Lambert.
But thanks to the on-board multimedia system, investigators have access and stopping points for the vehicle, in the absence of its precise route.
Extensive searches were carried out in several places where Samuel Gonin stopped after Lina’s disappearance, before the body was finally discovered in a small stream, near Nevers, almost 500 kilometers from her home.
“The body was hidden in the bed of a river. It was very difficult to see. But the searches on the different stopping points of the car were extremely meticulous,” insists General Lambert.
“The investigators who found it were those who were progressing in the watercourse. We can think that the body was there from the beginning.”
The investigations are now almost complete: “It remains to finalize the procedure. There are some final checks underway on the car. In any case, we will not be able to go much further in the absence of the possibility of “to have more details from Mr. Gonin”, regrets General Lambert.
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