three people indicted and imprisoned after the discovery of the body of a man missing since 2014

The investigation closed in June 2015 was reopened in 2021. The three main suspects were hired “under the table” by the missing man.

Three people were indicted and imprisoned on Saturday March 2, after the discovery of the body of a man missing since 2014 in Yvelines, franceinfo learned Thursday March 7 from a source close to the investigation.

The man had been missing since November 8, 2014, when his brother presented himself at the Versailles (Yvelines) police station to report his disappearance, even though he had not given any sign of life for four days. His cell phone had also stopped transmitting on the evening of November 4.

A cell phone believed to belong to the missing person

At the start of the investigation, it turns out that three people, hired “under the table” by the missing man to do work on his villa under construction in Cormeilles-en-Parisis (Val-d’Oise), were the last to having seen it. During their hearing, they evoke the violent and angry nature of their boss, who has not paid them for several months. The investigation closed in June 2015.

Following the formation of a civil party, the investigation was reopened in 2021. In 2023, the family of the missing person handed over to investigators from the Val-d’Oise judicial police a cell phone supposedly belonging to the missing person.

But this phone will quickly reveal decisive elements, because it is in reality used by one of the workers. Investigators discovered messages in which he spoke of his precarious situation and his intention to obtain a “9mm pistol”, in particular. A conversation between one of the three people and his sister the day after his hearing will also advance the investigation, which leads to the arrest of six people on February 27, 2024.

The body buried and covered with lime

The three main suspects then admitted to having participated in the assassination of the victim, one of them explaining that he had been forced by the victim, with his two friends, to work for free on the construction site to pay off a debt that he could not not refund.

These three suspects also provided investigators with directions to find the body of the victim, buried in a wood in Mesnil-le-Roi (Yvelines) and covered with lime. One of the suspects explained that the trio, exasperated by the physical violence and aggressiveness of their boss, decided to set up an ambush on the emergency shoulder of a highway, then shot in the back of the head before burying the body.