Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès : comment
"I'm still alive." These few words scribbled on the back of a photo sent to a journalist in July 2015 may have been genuine after all. One of the greatest mysteries in criminal history came to an end on Friday afternoon, October 11, at Glasgow Airport in Scotland.
Wanted by all police forces in France and Europe since April 2011, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, 58, was arrested when he got off the plane, more than eight years after the murder of five members of his family in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique). A woman, a girl and three boys found buried under the terrace of the Ligonnès house on April 21, 2011. And an vanished father, disappeared overnight, leaving no trace.
Dozens of theses and hundreds of testimonies have been published on Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. Some people imagined him at the end of the world, having meticulously prepared his escape and his change of life. Others thought he was dead, perhaps suicidal, in any case disappeared forever in a rift or a ravine in the Var, the last place where he was definitely seen at the end of April 2011.
His trace was then found in Scotland, where local authorities had been interested in a somewhat strange man since a few weeks. When in doubt, and while Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès had been the subject of a Europol red card for several years, Scottish police officers sent photos of this individual to the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ), in charge of this investigation in France.
At the sight of the images, the French police officers are not thrilled. Yes, some physical traits resemble the father, but no one is certain. In case of doubt, and as they have done since the death of the entire Dupont de Ligonnès family, the investigators still decide to check. The Scots, with whom relations have been excellent since the beginning, are especially aware of one important piece of information: their target must take a flight from Paris and to Glasgow on Friday. The French police officers are therefore urgently trying to arrest him before his departure from Roissy (Val-d'Oise). But when they arrive on the spot, their "objective" has already taken off.
French investigators are therefore asking the Scots to check the fingerprints of this intriguing passenger. Upon his arrival at the airport, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès was arrested. Quickly driven away from the crowd, the salesman did not resist and let the Scottish police take his fingerprints.
A few minutes later, the result comes in. According to Scottish investigators, this man they have just arrested is Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, the main witness and suspect in the murder of his wife and four children. Only a DNA test will confirm his identity with certainty.
Subject to an international arrest warrant, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès is expected to be handed over to the French authorities shortly. A procedure that could possibly be complicated by Brexit, according to a source close to the file. But even if it takes time, a judge will finally be able to hear the former salesman, who has been silent until now.
And perhaps get an answer to a question that has obsessed France for eight years: what has the alleged perpetrator of the fivefold murder done over the years? Because the case that bears his name has crystallized the passions of public opinion, as well as all the investigators who have worked on the subject. "Not a month goes by without information about him," an investigator told us a few weeks ago.
Over the past eight years, police officers have checked hundreds of pipes and explored dozens of leads. When they found bones in April 2015 near Fréjus (Var), they thought they were putting an end to the story. Without success. They also believed they had caught this number one suspect one morning in January 2018, in a monastery in Roquebrune-sur-Argens (Var) where the monks took a vow of silence. Without any more success.
Finally, according to our information,
Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès lived in Glasgow under a false identity for several years, and changed his appearance somewhat. According to our information, he was able to travel with a passport stolen in 2014. He was arrested while trying to return to Scotland after having spent the last few days in Ile-de-France, where searches were underway on Friday evening.
BBM
One gets the impression that possibly his family may have known all about it. Or maybe his mistress, the one who was so scared that she went into hiding.
