http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-dive...ais-23-05-2019-8078280.php#xtor=AD-1481423553
Thomas Rauschkolb's father received a picture of Nordahl Lelandais last March taken at the nightclub where his son was partying before he died in 2015. The gendarmes are working on this trail, but remain very cautious.
It's a disturbing picture, and the place where it was taken is even more disturbing. Thomas Rauschkolb's father received this enigmatic image on March 18. We see Nordahl Lelandais, already indicted for the murders of little Maëlys and Corporal Arthur Noyer, hugging a young woman at a party. On his right arm he wears a silver bracelet identical to the one seen on other pictures. His athletic musculature and hair cut leave little doubt as to the identity of the 36-year-old ex-military.
This photo was taken in August 2012 at Studio 54, a nightclub located in Grésy-sur-Aix (Savoie), according to the establishment's Facebook page. It was published by a waitress at the disco. A "marking" of the place and the date of publication is visible on the social network. Now, this disco is the last place where Thomas Rauschkolb was seen alive two and a half years later.
On December 27, 2015, the 18-year-old left his father's apartment and spent the evening at Studio 54, in this small town of 4500 inhabitants. It is located about thirty kilometres from Domessin, the family home of Nordahl Lelandais. Thomas' body was found the next day in the Sierroz River, not far from the nightclub. At the time, the courts quickly concluded that there had been a drunkenness accident.
But the unearthing of this "disturbing" image, in the words of Me Bernard Boulloud, who has recently started representing Thomas Rauschkolb's relatives, could revive the investigation. According to our information, it is already in the possession of the gendarmes of the research section who have never abandoned the file. According to a source close to the investigations, the investigators are convinced that it is indeed Lelandais. Investigations into this image have been launched. "But beware, this photo does not prove at this stage that he is linked to the death of Thomas Rauschkolb. Just that he went to the same nightclub."
"Nothing says that Lelandais was not there the day he died," says Francis Rauschkolb, the victim's father. "There are too many coincidences in this story ."
Thomas' father never believed the hypothesis of an accident. As a sign that the gendarmes do not totally exclude a crime, the Thomas Rauschkolb case is one of 40 non-elucidated cases selected by the gendarmerie's Ariane cell, who analysed more than 900 disappearances and suspicious deaths that could be linked to Nordahl Lelandais.
The gendarmes could not exclude the presence of the alleged killer in the area on the date of the boy's death, or even at Studio 54. This track in Lelandais, the victim's father considers it "credible", recalling that Corporal Noyer "was killed while leaving a nightclub " in Chambéry, less than 20 km from Grésy-sur-Aix.
In Francis Rauschkolb's view, several disturbing elements deserve to be analysed again. When Thomas left the disco the night he died, he took a different route from the one he usually took to get home. "It doesn't make sense," his father says. At the end of a residential driveway, he probably crossed a fence, losing a shoe on the way. "He wanted to escape from someone and was running away," Francis Rauschkolb thinks. Her son's belt was strangely discovered hanging on a fence a few dozen metres from her body. "He must have wanted to defend himself with it. This has been my conviction for a long time."
Refusing the theory of a simple fall put forward by the courts, Thomas' father had refused to cremate the boy in order to leave the door open for an autopsy. His lawyer, Me Boulloud, may request the investigators to exhume the body in the coming weeks. "I will do everything to find out the truth," "Francis Rauschkolb says. "This picture means real hope."
The gendarmes and the judiciary are still cautious pending further investigations. "The preferred option remains the accident at this stage," according to a judicial source.
Hopes have already been dashed before: the relatives of two missing persons from the Fort of Tamié (Savoie) in 2011 and 2012 had thought they recognized Lelandais on a video shot at the festival. Expertise has concluded that it was not him in the end. This time, it is really him in the picture.
BBM
