The investigation is progressing concerning the death of an SNCF agent which occurred on April 3, 2023 at the Saint-Etienne Châteaucreux station. The victim died of poisoning or an overdose. One of the abandoned punch flasks the officer tasted contained cocaine and a cutting product.
The investigation after the death of an SNCF receptionist at Châteaucreux Saint-Etienne station has taken a new turn following the results of autopsies and analyses. In a press release, the public prosecutor indicates that the investigation is now being carried out for “counts of manslaughter and drug trafficking.” A decision which follows the results of the autopsy and other analyzes carried out since April 3, 2023, the date of the death of this 41-year-old man.
All the results of the analyzes, in particular toxicological, will not be known before the beginning of next week, but the autopsy carried out on April 5, 2023 at the forensic institute, reveals a death by intoxication or overdose.
Other results obtained by the scientific police of Ecully: one of the flasks of punch that the victim tasted “contained cocaine and Levamisole, an antiparasitic product on a list of poisonous substances, regularly used as a cutting product by cocaine traffickers.“
These two pockets of liquid, found in an abandoned bag in the hall of the station, had been brought back by a traveler to the railway security officers. Themselves had entrusted the flexible flasks of a liter and a half each to four reception agents.
In his press release, the public prosecutor in Saint-Etienne specifies the circumstances of the tragedy. The forgotten bag was found by an SNCF customer around 6 p.m. on March 3, 2023. It then passed from the hands of a security guard to those of the station agents who, “instead of placing these products in found objects, decided to consume them.“
In this bag, two flexible pockets, a priori new, and bearing “the mark of a punch producer“According to the scenario established by the investigators, the four receptionists who have custody of this liquid, meet in their premises, around 7 p.m., and pour themselves a drink.
The first to taste immediately spits it out”telling his colleagues not to touch it because it was not drinkable.“This 41-year-old father immediately returns to the station platform where he feels unwell from which he will not recover.
Another agent, who had also tasted what he believed to be punch, had been hospitalized, complaining of having an anesthetized mouth. After examination, he was released from the hospital without sequelae.