in Mignovillard, the former village of Maëlys, the emotion is still strong

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When she disappeared, on the night of August 26 to 27, 2017, little Maëlys, her older sister and her parents were living in Froidefontaine, in the town of Mignovillard.

In the Jura, the inhabitants still remember the family, the child, who died at 8 and a half years old, disappeared during a wedding in Isère, in Pont-de-Beauvoisin. Some villagers intend to closely follow the trial of Nordahl Lelandais, alleged murderer of Maëlys, which opens Monday, December 31 in Grenoble.

Panel at the entrance to Froidefontaine, commune of Mignovillard, the village where Maëlys and his family lived at the time of his disappearance. © Radio France
– Rachel Saadoddine

Louis, 69, lives in village of about 800 inhabitants always. He lived right next to Maëlys, he saw her the day before she disappeared: “I was sad, before that here it was a very quiet village”. Didier has two daughters, one of them was in Maëlys’ class: “I’ve always told him to be careful with strangers ever since. It’s been hard”.

Villagers in chaste pain

In the town center of Mignovillard, there is a bakery, a grocery store, a county cheese dairy… and quite a few visitors on Sunday mornings. However, seeing the microphone, the residents move away. We feel a great modesty, some sketch: “I don’t want to talk about it, out of respect for the family.” In Froidefontaine, a shopkeeper exclaims: “We know why you come the media, you can leave so dry.”

“I kept a photo of Maëlys at home” – Marie, retired from Mignovillard

But, Marie, retired, agrees to testify: “I have a photo of Maëlys at home, I cut it out of the newspaper, I keep it in a book”. The old woman has lost her husband. When she goes to meditate on her grave in the cemetery, she also passes in front of the stele installed in homage to Maëlys. “I always stop”, she explains, sobs in her voice.

Stele of little Maëlys in the cemetery of Mignovillard, in the Jura, the village where she lived with her family at the time of her disappearance.
Stele of little Maëlys in the cemetery of Mignovillard, in the Jura, the village where she lived with her family at the time of her disappearance. © Radio France
– Rachel Saadoddine

The town hall of the commune refuses to speak on the subject. On the way to the cemetery, an assistant to the mayor notices the France Bleu Besançon microphone, she stops in the car and says to Marie: “Hush huh”. The retiree therefore prefers to go home: “She scared me, I’ll stop there.”

But, one thing is certain, she will follow the trial carefully and hopes that Nordahl Lelandais will have “a heavy sentence, he deserves it”.


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