Many hypotheses have been put forward to try to explain the disappearance of a couple and their two children, near Cognac, in Charente, after a New Year’s Eve with friends.
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This is a case that is more than half a century old. The investigation into the disappearance of the Méchinauds, one of the oldest French criminal cases, has just joined the center “cold cases” (“closed cases”), a specialized structure dedicated to crimes serial or not elucidated, a judicial source announced to France Télévisions, Friday January 19. On December 5, 2023, the Méchinaud case left the Angoulême court (Charente) where it was being investigated to join Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) where it was entrusted to a specialized judge.
This legal enigma concerns the disappearance of an entire family, a couple and their two children, near Cognac, on Christmas Day in 1972. Since then, numerous hypotheses have been put forward – the car falling in the Charente, family killings , assassinations by a third party or voluntary departure abroad – but no evidence or clue has made it possible to favor one hypothesis over another.
A disappearance reported after several days
Less than four kilometers separated the Méchinauds’ home from the place where, according to friends, they spent New Year’s Eve. No one seems to have seen them again since they left in the night. When the police were alerted to their absence several days later, the house appeared in order. Christmas dinner was still in the fridge. But no trace of the missing family. Despite more than fifty years of impassesand a procedure reduced to its simplest expression (around ten minutes), justice still has the hope of resolving the enigma.
