In August 2017, it had been five years since Eddy had seen Nordahl Lelandais, this longtime friend, whom he had lost sight of. So far, this career soldier has always appreciated “Nono”, whom he rubbed shoulders with throughout his twenties, mainly at parties. He had even invited him to celebrate his 30th birthday, six years earlier. “He was a jovial, good-natured person, who liked to party and integrated easily into a group”summarizes Anne-Laure, his companion, Tuesday, February 8, facing the Assize Court of Isère.
So, when Nordahl Lelandais calls Eddy the week of his wedding, the latter does not hesitate for a second and offers him “naturally” to pass to the aperitif. “Especially since he was moving my witness the same day”, says the 40-year-old man. This impromptu call, after years without news, does not surprise him more than that. “It looks like him, it happened that he came to a party, through other people. It was him, we accepted him like that”says Eddy.
On the seventh day of the trial of Nordahl Lelandais, the couple came to tell how what was to be a day of “happiness” turned into “nightmare”when Maëlys de Araujo, 8, disappeared in the middle of the festivities in Pont-de-Beauvoisin. By including this last-minute guest, they were far from suspecting that they had “bring the wolf into the fold”as Eddy said Tuesday morning, in cold anger.
“I knew he liked to drink, smoke joints. But I felt it was the same person I had known, so no fear of inviting him”, repeats the groom at the bar. Also, when several friends, including Nordahl Lelandais, come to see him at the end of the aperitif to ask to come back later in the evening, Eddy accepts with pleasure and offers them to come back around 1 am, at cake time.
The party is in full swing, the couple is “in the euphoria of marriage” and don’t see him much. “We just laughed at two or three photos of me when I was younger”, remembers Eddy. Around 2:30 am, the evening changes: Maëlys is nowhere to be found. At first, the groom keeps his cool and studies the most rational solutions.
“We say to ourselves that she may have left with the grandparents, that she is sleeping in a hidden place, that we would not have seen. She may be under a table, maybe outside in playing. For a quarter of an hour, twenty minutes, I can’t believe it.”
Eddy, the groom from Pont-de-Beauvoisinin front of the Assize Court of Isère
And then everyone starts freaking out. The DJ calls into the microphone. The music is cut, research is improvised. At that time, Anne-Laure thinks that an intruder may have mingled with the guests. The next day, she spends her day calling back all the guests and the photographer to collect all of their photos and try to identify a suspect who is foreign to her. “I couldn’t imagine for a second that it was someone I knew”blows this blonde woman.
But her husband has an intuition. Eddy tells like his “lights came on” one after the other, converging on Nordahl Lelandais. Her cousin, Jennifer de Araujo, the girl’s mother, quickly confides to her that she suspects the“dog man” who was seen playing ball with Maëlys. Eddy goes to see him and asks him if he hasn’t seen the little girl. “His answer was ‘no’, so I moved on. But seeing Jennifer worried about him was a first alert.”, explains Eddy. Anne-Laure remembers a strange remark made by the accused. “But what kid are we looking for?”, he would have thrown at her.
Then Nordahl Lelandais vanishes during the search. Eddy’s witness informs him that the guest felt bad, went to vomit in the toilet and left. “I didn’t believe it at all, because he was doing very well when I met him”, said Eddy. One more sign.
“The Nordahl I knew would have said to me: ‘I’m going to get my dogs and I’m coming to help you’. There he left without saying goodbye, without saying anything.”
Eddy, the groom from Pont-de-Beauvoisinin front of the Assize Court of Isère
To the gendarmes, Eddy confides: “It’s weird, he left before you arrived, it doesn’t look like him”. Afterwards, he blames himself. “Maybe I’m blaming a friend.” But the next day, his suspicions are rekindled: while all the guests are at the town hall to make their statement, Nordahl Lelandais is absent. A friend of Eddy contacts him and insists that he come drop off. Respondent’s response: “Ah, you haven’t found this girl yet?”
“The indifference he had at that time is also a warning light that came on”, comments Eddy. On August 28, two days after the wedding, his witness met the former dog handler in the Leclerc parking lot in Pont-de-Beauvoisin. He is cleaning his car. “I tell him: ‘Above all, you must let nothing pass’. And I give him the number of the investigator'”, remembers Eddy. Six months later, a stain of Maëlys’ blood will be discovered in the trunk of the Audi A3 of the accused, who will admit to having kidnapped and killed the girl, after having proclaimed loud and clear that he had nothing to do with in his disappearance.
Today, it is anger that dominates in the groom, mixed with great guilt. “We’ve been living with this for four years, but we’re trying to move on because my pain will never be as high as Jennifer’s. [de Araujo] and that of his family”he said in a trembling voice. “At the beginning, I had a feeling of betrayal and in fact, when I see his portrait, what we discovered about him, I tell myself that he is a person I do not know”analyzes the soldier.
“We did not imagine what was going to follow and all the darkness of the accused.”
Anne-Laure, the bride of Pont-de-Beauvoisinin front of the Assize Court of Isère
Alain Jakubowicz, Nordahl Lelandais’ lawyer, invites Eddy to say more about his client’s change of heart: as during the trial for the murder of Corporal Noyer, the 2017 change seems to be one of the pillars of his defense. “The man you knew five years before the facts was obviously not capable of committing the abomination that we learn here? Doesn’t that correspond to the man you knew?”asks the lawyer. “Yes, that’s what makes me say that its dangerousness is proven. How can one, with so much discernment, so much mastery, fool everyone?”retorts Eddy curtly.
The soldier only turns once to his former comrade, asking him coldly, without batting an eyelid: “If Maëlys hadn’t stopped you, what would you have done behind? What was your objective? Kill, rape?” The hearing continues, without waiting for the response of the accused, from whom no one seems to expect anything.