http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/so...ns-de-nordahl-l-devant-les-juges_1948502.html
Information coming from NL hearing before the judges:
"You might think that you are adapting your answers to the questions ..." On the evening of 3 September, the two investigating judges in charge of the Maëlys case no longer hide their annoyance at Nordahl L. their interrogation of the suspect turns to the game of evasion. The magistrates have the feeling that this 34-year-old man, invited to marriage in Pont-de-Beauvoisin (Isère) when the girl disappeared on 27 August, delivers an incoherent account of the night of the facts. That he is involved in the kidnapping and that he does not say everything.
"No, I do not adapt, I try to remember memories of this evening to the maximum," replies Nordahl L., never destabilized. This hearing, which L'Express was able to consult, is the last of the suspect. It comes at a key moment in the investigation. The former soldier - a Thai boxing practitioner converted into dog breeding and handling - has been in the investigators' eyesight for several days. He was placed in custody before being released for lack of charges. Without ever dissipating suspicion.
"This is the first time I saw her"
This time, the investigating judges have a crucial element in their sleeve: a tiny genetic trace of Maëlys, 8 years old, whom he did not know before the evening of the wedding, was raised in front of his Audi A3. A vehicle that he nevertheless methodically cleaned the next day.
This discovery does not undermine the defense of the suspect.
"When I was at the table and saw the picture of my dogs on my phone, I spoke with this little girl. It was the first time I saw her," he reminded judges, whereas he had, at first, minimized his contacts with the girl.
The man claims that this scene took place in the presence of the mother of Maëlys. What she is challenging. On the contrary, the latter fears that he has managed to build a relationship of trust with his daughter during the party, taking advantage of the "love of animals" of the child. She had been disturbed by the familiarity with which Maëlys pointed to the suspect: "my friend" or "tonton".
"I do not remember touching her"
According to her version, Nordahl then brushes the brunette in the parking lot of the hall with other children. There, the girl insists to see if he took his Malinois shepherds to his chest. She is, he continues, accompanied by a "little blonde with a ball" whose first name he does not know. "I had opened the passenger side, I showed them [not], the little blonde came up and Maëlys too, it lasted 5-6 seconds." However, the DNA of the brunette was found, mixed with his, at the level of the headlights driver ...
"Did you touch Maëlys?" Asked one of the judges.
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"I do not remember touching her, maybe helping her get out of the car because it's a three-door, I do not remember taking her in the arms" says Nordal L.
For Nordahl L., the only explanation is that there was a mere transfer of DNA when he took his hand.
But the investigators are dubious. First because they did not identify any "blond" boy likely to have experienced this scene, nor picked up any other DNA. Then because a witness tells that she only saw Maëlys in the parking lot. The latter also said he had
surprised a strange injunction from the suspect to the girl. As they returned to the room, Nordahl L. reportedly said to Maëlys: "I pass by this way, but you go to the other side." Clearly, he asks her to go through the main door when he borrows the adjoining glass door. "It was the entrance of the DJ and there were sons," he justifies.
"Speaking again, it's flashing"
Imperturbable, Nordahl has an answer to everything. Why does he fail to recount this episode during his first custody? "It's a stupidity on my part," he admits, "for me to hear that a little one was taken away and spoke to me, and that I had brought her into my car without forcing her, it disrupted me. " Why does he give the impression of delivering a story in a dribble? "There was a lot of alcohol, talking again, it's flashing."
The time of the disappearance of Maëlys could not be established with precision, for lack of concordant testimonies in the confusion of the night. But the gendarmes questioned two movements of Nordahl, revealed by the study of a second phone whose curiously canceled the subscription the day after. The first, the suspect places it between 00h30 and 1h. According to his declarations, he returns to his mother's house in Domessin (Savoie), 10 minutes by car from the village hall, to change his white shorts stained with red wine and vomit. This garment, which has never been found, would have thrown it into a "garbage container". "I did not want my mother to know that I drink and drive at the same time."
"I went to look for narcotics"
The second trip takes place in the middle of the night. Around 3 am, the DJ cuts the music and announces to the microphone that the girl is wanted by her parents. Anxiety rises. But
the ex-military is absent subscribers. One of his friends remembers seeing him last enter the bathroom at the beginning of the search. Never again. According to this close, Nordhal L. pretext to want to "vomit". "I did not vomit at all," the suspect said, explaining that he had gone "just pissing". It is my word against his word.
His absence is in any case noticed. At about 3:15 am, the groom asked him to be contacted. But the three calls are redirected to his answering machine. Ten minutes later, Nordahl's phone activates a terminal outside the marriage area. "I went to Saint-Albin to look for amazing products," he finally let go. He is, however, unable to identify this mysterious dealer with whom he would have provided himself. At 3:55, his phone is located again in the area of ​​the hall of the festivals. Without knowing if he is really present. No one sees him participating in the research. "I did not participate actively," he corrects.
At four o'clock in the morning, the gendarmes took over.
Nordahl explains that he had gone home to sleep with his parents. The investigators could not verify this: his phone is inactive between 4am and 7am. The former soldier pleads "network problems". "But the investigators told me it was not that," he concedes.
"I do not remember having insisted"
The following day, in the late afternoon, Nordahl L. takes the time to thoroughly clean his Audi at a service station located opposite his home. "The wax is better there," he says. According to the operation of the cameras, he scours his car - from the ceiling to the carpets - from 17:28 to 19:45. Investigators noted: "Wipe-up, use of a spray on the front passenger seat, trunk cleaning with wipes, vacuum cleaner ..." According to the suspect, this zeal is due to an imminent sale of the vehicle to a friend.
After explaining that he was using "Marseilles soap", Nordahl L. conceded to the judges the use of a "pschitt for rims" in the trunk and on the front mats. This detergent has such a strong smell that it made the dogs of the gendarmes sick and dizzy the investigators. Nordahl L. declared that he simply wanted to restore "a gray color" to his "brown" carpet.
- "It is not usual to pass such a detergent?" Insists one of the judges.
- "No, it's really because I was going to sell it." Usually, I clean with a vacuum cleaner and a brush ... I did not want to leave any dog ​​hair.
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Why do you insist on the passenger handle?
- The scratching of the nails, quite simply. I do not remember having insisted. "
Nordhal L. is finally put under investigation and imprisoned, without adding a word. Leaving behind him persistent questions: Does he hold the keys to the enigma? Or is he the victim of an incredible misfortune, with a succession of circumstances that play against him? While the parents of Maëlys officially come to call him to say "what he knows", the ex-soldier could be re-heard. Contacted, his new lawyer Alain Jakubowicz did not wish to express himself.
