MAËLYS: AT 02.45 HRS, THE LITTLE GIRL EXCHANGES A FEW MORE WORDS WITH HER GRANDMOTHER
MSM.com.fr
http://www.msn.com/fr-be/actualite/other/maëlys-mobilisation-générale/ar-AArulsn?ocid=st
About 20 children participate in the wedding. "It was like a party in a village square. It was cheerful! " a guest tells later. At 1:30 a. m., the DJ informs that the babysitter who was hired for the occasion will return home, and that "parents must now watch their little ones".
Some of them already sleep on mattresses in a separate room. "Maë" is one of those who won't go to bed. She doesn't want to miss anything.
At 2:45 a. m., the hall is not very crowded. Many guests walk away, greeting the lingering smokers. This is the moment when the little girl exchanges a few words with her grandmother. After that, nothing. Silence. It's like she evaporated.
At 3:00 in the morning, her parents start looking for her. The DJ makes a first announcement to ask if anyone has seen Maëlys. Silence. The music stops. The last few partygoers will be the first to look for her. In the corners of the hall, outside on the parking lot, in the woods around, near the high school below. Some even take their cars.
Dozens of witnesses are here, but no one who noticed anything, a detail. It's driving people crazy. There are those who say that she probably fell asleep, or that she is somewhere playing. But there are fewer and fewer of them. Soon, a panic breaks out. "An apocalyptic nightmare! "a guest will cry out. Maëlys is nowhere to be found. At 3:57 a. m., the police and gendarmes were alerted. The party ends in tears.
As the sun rises on Sunday, the next day, the guests are confined, in shock, by the lack of sleep and waiting. They'll be locked up until 19:00. "We were all convinced that Maëlys had been kidnapped. People suspected each other. Everyone thought: "The kidnapper may be one of us" Imagine..."Videos, souvenir photos of a holiday day are confiscated, seized.
Identities, recorded, examined. And the discovery is frightening: a dozen guests or neighbors appear in the list of perpetrators of sexual or violent offences (FIJAISV). It includes persons who have been convicted, indicted, prosecuted, criminalized or even dismissed, cleared or acquitted of a sexual or violent offence or crime.
A call for witnesses has already been launched concerning "disturbing disappearance".
There are nearly a hundred of them on the ground, but "all the men I command [they are 1,500] pay particular attention to this file," Colonel Yves Marzin, commander of the Isère gendarmerie group, insists. On Monday, the Bourgoin-Jallieu Public Prosecutor's Office opens an investigation for "kidnapping". On Tuesday, reinforcements arrive.
Six dog handlers supported by a helicopter, divers from the Aix-les-Bains nautical brigade and speleologists sound the Guiers and bodies of water, search all the cavities. Hours pass. The search is expanded. "There were two other parties nearby, along with 70 other potential witnesses."
Two hundred and ten people are being interviewed, some forty homes searched. Investigators receive assistance from Anacrim, the software that connects the multitude of elements collected and synthesizes them, and notes possible contradictions.
Three sniffer dogs enter the scene, including two stars, dogs of Saint-Hubert. All "mark" in the same place: at the entrance of the car park. "This may indicate the departure of little Maëlys by car," Colonel Marzin ventures. Investigators from the technical and judicial police search the cars, including the white Citroën of the party hall warden, and the Audi A3 of N., a 34 year-old interim handler and friend of the groom. N. is a former soldier, muscular, broad and nervous. He specialized in dog training in the army, in the paratroopers and in the Legion. "He has a gift," says a neighbour, "and an unconditional love for his Belgian Malinois shepherds." Lately, according to his lawyer, N. was on sick leave. One of his friends explains: "He left his apartment for economic reasons and went back to live with his parents and brother. He's going through a tough time. A few months ago, he would have broken up with his girlfriend, he didn't like it very much..."
But many people remember a nice boy," fan of speed and daredevil, but not dangerous. He used to play with our kids, he was playing the funny uncle. He has an easy smile," someone says. Others are less confident:
"For several years now, he has been seeing people involved in drug trafficking. His criminal record does not plead in his favour: damage to property, arson of private property, burglary, use of narcotics, theft from a trailer."
The gendarmes interrogate N. for the first time on Thursday, August 31st. They notice his closeness to the children. His sudden disappearance at the moment Maëlys vanished is disturbing. According to two guests, a slight altercation took place between Joachim de Araujo and N.:"Maëlys' father did not like N. showing his daughter videos", they tell us. Above all, he did not participate in the searches..."
The gendarmes ask him why he cleaned his car on Sundays, from top to bottom, and why he has scratches on his arms and knees. He's got the answer to everything. His disappearance: he went to change because he got dirty with wine. The scratches? Raspberry trees. The car? He sells it. N. was taken into custody with a second man of the same age. It would be a matter of confronting them. But very quickly, they were released. The gendarmes did not wait for the legal deadline to expire. In Pont-de-Beauvoisin, no one knows whether to celebrate or not.
The results of the tests carried out on the samples taken in the Audi will change everything: they show a DNA trace of Maëlys on an instrument on the control panel of N's car. So what? The dog-handler agrees, Maëlys has climbed to the rear of his vehicle. But that was at the same time as a 5-year-old boy. They wanted to check if his dogs were in the trunk... Besides, it happened long before the disappearance.
Eight days after the tragedy, he is indicted and remanded in custody. The happy ending that Sophie, a young mother invited to the wedding, dreamed of, is moving away. "I've hardly slept all week. I'm going back to that day and that damn night over and over again. I'm looking for something. A clue, a pattern of behavior, anything that might help me find Maëlys. It's eating my stomach to not remember every second, every minute. Maybe I saw something and I don't remember anything. The more I think about it, the more I forget. It makes me sick! And Maëlys is alone, not too far away. Or worse..."A word she refuses to say. Like her, many of them continue to believe, and keep on searching.
At 7:30 a. m. on Saturday, September 2, they had found themselves full of hope in the high school parking lot. Kids, hunters, retirees, family friends or strangers from all over the valley, called upon by social networks. Neither the fine rain nor the cool weather discouraged them. But like bad hunting dogs, they reported nothing but a shredded shirt, a red marker, a gray sock, bottles of beer in quantity - nothing from Maëlys, her white dress, her bare-foot shoes. So, between rare clearings and violent showers, the smiles faded, the faces closed. And the serene, soothing nature turned, in the eyes of all, into what it can be like for a child lost at night. A monster, hostile and cold.
BBM
Maëlys was last seen at 02.45 and gone at 03.00 hrs.
The suspect was present when she disappeared, but he did not take part in the searches.
Did he leave earlier in the night to go home and change his short? (This is what his lawyer says.)
Or did he leave to change his short when everybody started to seach for Maëlys? (Priorities!)
Was he locked into the hall later? Or did he not return at all?
:thinking:
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