Still Missing France - Narumi Kurosaki, 21, Besancon, 4 Dec 2016 *arrest in 2020* *Guilty, Appeal 2023*

[ZaZara]

@ZaZara​

Thank you very much for your development, I read it all. This case has really hit me hard as I myself am a Latin (Mexico). I used to live on these same 9 m2 rooms in France. I myself fell in love with a foreigner whilst studying my master there. Coincidentally about the same semester as Narumi. Like one journalist in France mentioned. This is not the mystery of Narumi, this is the mystery of Nicolas Zepeda's mind.

I hope Narumi's body will be found.

Hello and welcome to Websleuths, capmagn!
I feel honoured and humbled that you dedicated your first post to me. Thank you!

I too hope that the remains Narumi will be found. Perhaps the Prosecutor and his team would have been able the pinpoint the area more specifically, but they did not get access to Nicolas Zepeda's internet data.

It must be so strange to know those rooms from actually living there.... and then read how Zepeda could roam the building once he was past the front door.

 

[capmagn]

Hello and welcome to Websleuths, capmagn!
I feel honoured and humbled that you dedicated your first post to me. Thank you!

I too hope that the remains Narumi will be found. Perhaps the Prosecutor and his team would have been able the pinpoint the area more specifically, but they did not get access to Nicolas Zepeda's internet data.

It must be so strange to know those rooms from actually living there.... and then read how Zepeda could roam the building once he was past the front door.

Welcome.

Exactly, no wonder how he could get away with it. In fact is very easy, there are hardly ever people in the streets late at night, let alone at early mornings on those very coldy days. Rivers are everywhere throughout France. The possible dumping of the body on the river seems plausible. But is very weird that it hasn't floated back again yet. Even with branches below the water. With the water movement, something should've already come up.

 

[ZaZara]

Welcome.

Exactly, no wonder how he could get away with it. In fact is very easy, there are hardly ever people in the streets late at night, let alone at early mornings on those very coldy days. Rivers are everywhere throughout France. The possible dumping of the body on the river seems plausible. But is very weird that it hasn't floated back again yet. Even with branches below the water. With the water movement, something should've already come up.

The Prosecutor said that unfortunately it happens that bodies never turn up. For various reasons, among them the catfish in the river Doubs.

I'm still not sure if Zepeda planned this part of his crime, or if he simply got lucky. It was winter. In the middle of the night. Somewhere in an area with vast forests. No lights. Bumpy roads, perhaps the road near the river is of a slightly better quality. I know I would not want to drive there at night, and perhaps not even during daytime.

They say that the place where the victim is left, dumped, hidden, tells you something about the murderer, namely that this place has a special meaning for him. ( I wondered about that. What would I do in the unlikely case that i had to hide a body? and I could not come up with one spot that wasn't known to me for a reason.) Except in this case, Zepeda had only arrived a few days before. He had no connection to the area, other than what he may have researched on-line.
Nowhere I have read that Zepeda was particularly at ease in the woods at night. Some people are. But AFAIK no one has mentioned this about him.
If a person had lived there all his life and hiked the area, it would be far more likely that they knew the remote corners, crevasses, the characteristics of the river and the perfect hiding place.
Yet Zepeda somehow managed this in less than two nights.

I don't know but I have the feeling that something is missing. If Narumi's remains went into the river, there is a chance that they would have been found before Zepeda returned to Chile. He must have been aware of that risk, but he does not hurry. So how did he ensure that the remains would not be found?

 

[capmagn]

Great insight @ZaZara

It is indeed a mystery but actually if we think about Occam's razor, Essentially, the simplest explanation is the right one. I think everyone, prosecutor and all of us perhaps we are missing something very simple. Actually, he could've roamed a lot but probably because he foresaw this and wanted to confuse everyone with his footprints. He was good at technology, he must have known this that he would be tracked, that even in 2016 when advancements were already there. Someone mentioned on a Youtube video (in Spanish) that he had a mobile business in a mall in Santiago. Going back to the explanation. Perhaps he hid the body near the school. Walking, carrying it (with or without luggage). They say that the land is harder during winter, but as mentioned during the case, when you kill somebody, nothing is impossible. The determination supercedes the weakness, the adrenaline rushes through your muscles.

 

[ZaZara]

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250226-france-court-orders-retrial-of-chilean-over-alleged-murder-of-ex-girlfriend​

France court orders retrial of Chilean over alleged murder of ex-girlfriend​

Strasbourg (France) (AFP) – France's top court on Wednesday ordered a retrial of a Chilean accused of killing his Japanese ex-girlfriend in the eastern city of Besancon in 2016, ruling that investigators had withheld evidence from his defence team.

The Court of Cassation, the highest appeals court in France, said the Chilean would not be released from jail, but tried a third time over the murder.

It said it ordered the retrial because one of the investigators had used slides in their presentation to the court not previously submitted to defence lawyers.

BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Affaire Narumi : la condamnation du Chilien Nicolas Zepeda annulée par la Cour de cassation

Narumi case: Chilean Nicolas Zepeda's conviction overturned by the Court of Cassation

There has been a small judicial earthquake. On Wednesday 26 February, the Court of Cassation overturned the 28-year prison sentence handed down to Chilean Nicolas Zepeda, who will now be tried for a third time for the murder of Japanese student Narumi Kurosaki in Besançon in 2016. The Chilean was sentenced on appeal in December 2023 by the Haute-Saône Assize Court to 28 years' imprisonment, as in the first instance. He will be tried once again for the murder of his Japanese ex-girlfriend, this time by the Rhône assize court, the Cour de cassation said, specifying that its decision did not entail the release of the accused.

The high court overturned the ruling of the Haute-Saône assize court, because one of the investigators had used powerpoint projections in his testimony that had not been communicated to the defence lawyers beforehand, and that this same investigator had ‘de facto, and on his own initiative, carried out new investigative acts’, according to the ruling of the Court of Cassation. ‘This is a real victory and gives Mr Zepeda the opportunity to continue to assert his innocence in this third trial’, Patrice Spinosi, the Chilean's lawyer before the Court of Cassation, told AFP.

‘He was very much looking forward to the decision of the Court of Cassation, so he is obviously very pleased to be able to go back before the judges and once again assert his innocence’, continued Maître Spinosi. ‘He is obviously tired from being held in prison, but he remains completely combative and hopes that this third trial will enable him to put forward his truth and that he will finally be recognised as being innocent of the crime.’ ‘This decision confirms that there has been a sustained campaign to violate due process, with the aim of reinforcing the weak accusation with which the prosecutor has presented this case,’ Nicolas Zepeda's family also reacted in a statement. ‘As a family, we hope that due process will be respected, that we will get to the truth.’

BBM


..... because if it hadn't been for that powerpoint presentation, no doubt he would have walked a free man, why didn't we notice that earlier?

 

[ZaZara]

Nicolas Zepeda comparaîtra une troisième fois devant une cour d’assises pour l’assassinat de Narumi Kurosaki

On Wednesday 26 February, the Court of Cassation overturned the decision handed down on 21 December 2023 by the Haute-Saône Assize Court, on the grounds that it had disregarded a rule of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Of the five appeals submitted to the Cour de cassation, only one was upheld. It concerned a dispute relating to the testimony of an investigator who, to support his demonstration, had requested and obtained permission from the court to distribute a PowerPoint presentation. Nicolas Zepeda's two lawyers, Sylvain Cormier and Renaud Portejoie, denounced this as a ‘new act of investigation’ and therefore an infringement of the principle of a fair trial, justifying in their view the postponement of the trial and the annulment of the entire investigation carried out by this police officer. Presiding judge François Arnaud dismissed their motion on the grounds that the two lawyers had not filed it in the form of a ‘request for an act’, and the trial continued.

BBM

There is more, but that is subscriber-only. Would love to know the other appeals that were not upheld.

According to Le Parisien:

Assassinat de Narumi Kurosaki : la Cour de cassation annule la condamnation de Nicolas Zepeda

In a press release written in the legal jargon of the Cour de cassation, the judges justify their decision following a procedural incident that marred the appeal trial. The investigators, called as witnesses, had produced new evidence that had not appeared at the first trial, and above all had not been passed on to Zepeda's defence. This information was projected as a power point during the hearing, provoking the ire of the defence. But the Court of Appeal chose to continue with the proceedings. It was this point that justified the cassation, the high court considering that it could have prejudiced the interests of the defence.

BBM


Note to self: the high court does not say that this point did prejudice the interests of the defence, only that it could have.

Thinking this through, apparently Nicolás Zepeda wants another chance at life in prison. Fingers crossed.

 

[ZaZara]

La justicia francesa acepta la petición de la defensa y revoca la condena de Nicolás Zepeda.

It is important to underline that, despite this decision, Nicolás Zepeda must remain in pre-trial detention. The revision of the criminal proceedings does not guarantee his innocence, given that prosecutor Manteaux confirms that all the evidence continues to implicate Zepeda.

BBM

The Court of Cassation is the highest court in the judicial system. It verifies whether appeal court rulings and certain first instance judgements comply with the rules of law, without retrying the case.
The evidence itself was not taken into account by this judgement. Evidence that twice led to a conviction of 28 years. One wonders why the counsels for the defense would think the outcome will be different the third time.

 

[ZaZara]

Besançon. La famille de Narumi se dit « dévastée » par l'annonce d'un troisième procès, mais « déterminée à lutter »

Narumi's family say they are ‘devastated’ by the announcement of a third trial, but are ‘determined to continue the fight’.

Narumi Kurosaki's relatives are struggling to get over the decision by the Court of Cassation, which overturned Nicolas Zepeda's conviction on 26 February. ‘The prospect of facing a third trial is very emotional’, according to their lawyer, Me Galley. But the mother and sisters of the missing student say they are ‘ still committed to fight for justice’.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Besançon. Disparition de Narumi : « La présomption d’innocence n’a jamais existé » contre-attaque le père de Nicolas Zepeda

In around a year's time in Lyon, the Rhône Assize Court will be starting from scratch. What strategy will Nicolas Zepeda adopt then, given that he has already changed his story several times, confessing to a few lies along the way? ‘It's still too early to answer that question,’ Sylvain Cormier, one of the Chilean's lawyers, cautiously evades the question. Nicolas Zepeda can count on another lawyer who is much more forthcoming: his own father. On Wednesday, Humberto Zepeda released a twelve-page statement to several media outlets.

True to his line of defence, Nicolas' father castigated the alleged shortcomings of the French justice system. ‘The Court of Cassation declared that there had been no fair trial and that there had been violations of Nicolas' rights of defence, from a legal point of view, but with consequences for the validity of the evidence and the reality of the facts. There are still more uncertainties than certainties. This decision confirms that there has been a sustained campaign to violate due process’, says Humberto Zepeda.
‘We hope that justice will be done for Narumi and Nicolas’.

For the father of the accused, ‘the presumption of innocence has never existed. Guilt must be proven beyond all reasonable doubt’, he continued. ‘The investigation was unable to gather sufficient evidence to prove, on the one hand, the death of a person and, on the other, Nicolas' involvement.

Between two quotations from André Gide and Robert Badinter, Humberto Zepeda attacks at length the premeditation that was upheld in 2022 and 2023 by the Doubs and Haute-Saône Assize Courts. ‘There is no conclusive proof that Nicolas had planned to harm Narumi before travelling to France’, he insists, while referring to the “media and political weight” responsible, in his view, for the defendant's wrongful conviction.

Humberto Zepeda also consistently targets the prosecutor Étienne Manteaux, who represented the extradition prosecution at both trials: ‘Given the weakness of the evidence, he skilfully shifted the debate and discussion to the emotional level. Is it fair to sentence someone to 28 years on the basis of emotion, without direct or hard evidence? Certainly not. Judges are too sensitive to his eloquence and to the press’. Nicolas' father believes that the prosecution is unable “to determine where, how and when Narumi disappeared or died”.

Humberto Zepeda then goes on to list thirty points presented as ‘errors’ or ‘shortcomings’ in the investigation, revisiting the issues of the cries heard during the night, video surveillance, the technical aspects of geolocation, scientific elements, the fruitless search for the body, etc.

Zepeda père looks forward to this third trial as someone would throw himself on a last lifeline in the middle of a storm: ‘We hope to get to the truth and we hope that justice will be done for Narumi, Nicolas and their respective families’. The possibility of a confession, for those who still had hopes of it, has never seemed so remote.

BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Nicolás Zepeda solicitará por primera vez su libertad tras anulación de juicio - La Tercera

Nicolás Zepeda will request his release for the first time after the annulment of his sentence.
The lawyers of the Chilean - today imprisoned in a French jail - have begun the process of requesting his release. This comes after the Court of Cassation (the country's supreme court) ruled that the trial in which he was sentenced to 28 years in prison for the murder of Japanese student and ex-partner, Narumi Kurosaki, was flawed and annulled more than a month ago.

"Since the conviction has been overturned, I will ask for his release as soon as possible."

With these words, the French lawyer Sylvain Cormier answers a questionnaire sent to him by La Tercera and, with this, he also announces the judicial action initiated by the defence of the Chilean citizen Nicolás Zepeda, who is being tried for the murder of his ex-partner, the Japanese citizen Narumi Kurosaki.


BBM


No French sources for this news, only Chilean.

As far as I am aware, chances of NZ being released are slim to nothing. In theory, it is possible that a ruling of the Court of Cassation leads to the release of a suspect, but only if the lower Court and the Prosecution are of the opinion that the case has collapsed and that the suspect will walk free anyway. And that has not happened here, and will not happen in the third trial.