the essential
A twist in the investigation into the suspicious death of Florian Géraud in Paraguay last year: the cell phone of the 43-year-old from Massat, found hanging in a squat in Asunción, was recently lost by the local authorities. Which complicates further investigations.
As if the sudden and unexpected loss of their sons, on the other side of the world, was not cruel enough. To the misfortune that strikes Eric and Josette Géraud, Florian’s parents, is today added an investigation which accumulates blunders. A year after the death of this young 43-year-old amateur videographer, originally from Massat, in Ariège and found hanged on January 4, 2024, in an abandoned squat, Villa Aurelia district, in Asunción (Paraguay), an essential piece of the case has strangely disappeared. A hiccup which throws a little more trouble into this already very confusing affair where the theory of suicide is nevertheless favored by the Paraguayan authorities.
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“We don’t understand!” exclaim Josette and Eric, his devastated parents. We have the feeling that the truth has been hidden from us from the start, and the disappearance of Florian’s phone is proof! A device which had nevertheless been placed under seal, from January 4, 2024, the date on which Florian’s body was found in suspicious circumstances, in a squat, sitting on a chair, a cord with slack surrounding his neck. No trace of violence: the autopsy report then concluded that he died of asphyxiation.
According to our information, the judicial authorities of Asunción informed Florian’s parents a few days ago that the phone analyzed was not that of their son. This device, lost at the time of being assessed, is still the subject of research, according to Paraguay. This major piece of evidence is believed to hold valuable information about Florian’s final hours.
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The young Massatois arrived on December 11, 2023 in the Paraguayan capital to join a friend. Their plan was to make a documentary filmed on the fate of the Guarani people, a sensitive subject in this landlocked Latin American country.
On the night of December 31, 2023 to January 1, 2024, Florian spends New Year’s Eve with friends in an apartment in the capital. Then, around 4 a.m., he decided to leave the accommodation a second time, alone. His phone ceases all connection at 4:44 a.m. According to investigations carried out on his line, his phone would have been emptied of its content. Florian was found four days later, in an abandoned squat, 6 km from his place of accommodation, lifeless, with a cord around his neck.
“Information in dribs and drabs”
“Why, on the video surveillance images, is it time stamped 9:20 a.m. when we see Florian near this squat, when he is supposed to go there much earlier?” Josette asks. “I spoke to him on the phone on December 30, he was happy to be able to make this documentary with his friend. He had to go to the middle of the forest, a few days later, everything was planned.”
Did Florian have a bad encounter? Could a meeting with a young woman on December 25, via an online dating site, have a link to her death? Could the documentary project on the Guaranis represent a danger? All these questions remain unanswered. But for Florian’s parents, “it is a murder, a state crime that we are trying to disguise as suicide.”
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Josette and Eric are in indirect contact with a liaison magistrate, based in Argentina. The Toulouse investigating judge, Camille Lacroix, in charge of the investigation opened in France for “murder”, is trying by all means to obtain all the elements of the file. A difficult task.
“Partial information reaches us in dribs and drabs from Paraguay, regrets Mes Alexandre Martin and Emmanuelle Franck, the lawyers for Florian’s parents. We do not have all the documents in the file and the procedure, a year later, is dragging on. Our clients have the feeling that the truth is being hidden from them.” Toulouse lawyers plan to contact the Minister of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidency of the Republic to remove all the gray areas surrounding this painful affair.
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