It is drowning that is the cause of the death of Jean-Paul Roux, the mayor of Lussas. Faced with the mystery of the brutal death of the 66-year-old elected official found in the water at the Darbres dam on Friday, the Ardèche prosecutor’s office had ordered a forensic examination which was carried out this Tuesday morning in Nîmes. The expertise makes it possible to rule out the intervention of another person, the body did not bear any traces of a struggle. In contrast, the examination does not explain the circumstances of the drowning. A malaise, an accident, a suicide? “There is nothing to favor one hypothesis over another” said the Ardèche prosecutor’s office. The body will be returned to his family who will be able to organize the funeral.
The disappearance of Jean-Paul Roux is a shock in his town of Lussas where he had been mayor for 35 years. The emotion touched far beyond his village because he was a much appreciated political figure in Ardèche, also president of the community of communes Berg Coiron and former general councilor of the canton of Villeneuve-de-Berg.