the investigation wants to retrace the route of the suspect and identify other potential victims

The investigations into the murder of Iris C. in Morbihan, for which a suspect already convicted of rape was indicted last week, will try to “retrace the route” of the latter and to identify other potential victims, investigators announced on Monday, June 12. “In many ways, this investigation for us really begins…with the arrest of suspect number one,” filmed by CCTV cameras on the night of May 27 prowling around the victim, then carrying him on his shoulder, said during a press briefing the chief commissioner Amaury Le Neel, of the judicial police of Rennes.

The suspect was sentenced to nine years in prison in June 2015 for a rape committed in 2001 in Morbihan. Released from prison in July 2018, he respected the five-year socio-judicial follow-up imposed on him. “There are a lot of things to do to retrace his itinerary since his release, we can ask ourselves a lot of questions”, underlined the commissioner. Aged 49 and residing in Hennebont (Morbihan) near Lorient, he was indicted on counts of kidnapping, forcible confinement and murder preceded or accompanied by rape, recalled the public prosecutor of Lorient, Stéphane Kellenberger.

Suspect Version Changes

The man had started by claiming not to know Iris C., 23 years old. Confronted with the traces of his DNA found under the fingernails of the young woman, he “modified his statements and finally admitted that he saw Iris, drunk and unconscious, that he went to her, picked her up, grabbed her and charged her” in his van, but only according to him in order to help him, related Stéphane Kellenberger. “As she was not behaving well, still according to him, he would have told her to leave and would therefore have abandoned her like this”continued the prosecutor.

A few hours later, the naked body of Iris was found by walkers in the waters of Blavet, in Lanester. The autopsy revealed multiple traces of beatings on the head and face as well as “traces of strangulation caused by a bond”. This case, according to local media, has similarities with other attacks that have allegedly been committed in the Lorient region.