The body of a man was discovered by the gendarmes on Friday evening, and that of a woman on Saturday morning in Charente-Maritime. A third suspect is indicted for “murder” and imprisoned.
Two bodies were found on Friday March 3 and Saturday March 4 in Charente-Maritime, in the area where the gendarmes had undertaken searches on Friday, as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Leslie and Kevin. “The identities of the victims have not been formally established at this time”, said Saturday evening the public prosecutor of Poitiers in a press release. On Saturday a third man was indicted for “murder”. The 21 and 22-year-old couple had been missing since late November after spending the evening in Deux-Sèvres, near Niort.
>> LIVE. Disappearance of Leslie and Kevin: a third suspect indicted for “murders” and imprisoned
Excavations concentrated around two villages in Charente-Maritime
A dozen gendarmes have been searching since Friday the surroundings of Puyravault, a village of 700 inhabitants in the north of Charente-Maritime, an area where the couple’s belongings had been found on December 8. Kevin’s road safety certificate and Leslie’s belongings had been discovered, days after they disappeared in a clothing recycling container on the town. The Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN), based in Pontoise (Val-d’Oise), was dispatched to the scene to support their local colleagues.
It is first the body of a man who has been “exhumed in a field bordering a path” in Puyravault on Friday, said the Poitiers prosecution. Saturday is the body of a woman who has been “exhumed in a wooded area” in the neighboring town of Virson, near the hamlet of Les Haies.
VIDEO – Disappearance of Leslie and Kevin: the excavations are concentrated in a wood near the hamlet Les Haies in the town of Virson (near Puyravault) in Charente-Maritime #leslieetkevin #Charente Maritime pic.twitter.com/RCvl40EQI9
— France Blue La Rochelle (@Bleu_Rochelle) March 4, 2023
Three suspects arrested and charged
Nathan Badji was placed in pre-trial detention and indicted on Friday evening for “murders”, “kidnapping and kidnapping without voluntary release before the 7th day” and “modifying the inventory of a crime to obstruct the demonstration of the truth”. According to information from France Bleu La Rochelle, this man is part of the couple’s circle of friends and is from Puyravault.
>> Clothes found, trail of the assassination, indictments … What we know about the investigation into the disappearance of Leslie and Kevin
A decisive turning point in this investigation which changed on Tuesday with the arrest of a relative of the couple, Tom Trouillet. He was to house Leslie and Kevin the night they disappeared. He was indicted on Thursday for “kidnapping and forcible confinement” but not for murder. Which suggests that he did not have a direct role in the death of the young couple.
One of his acquaintances, a third man Enzo C. aged 23, was also remanded in custody. He was indicted on Saturday for “assassinations”, “modifying the inventory of a crime to obstruct the manifestation of the truth”, “kidnapping and kidnapping without voluntary release before the seventh day”, indicates the public prosecutor of Poitiers in a press release on Saturday.
Investigation of causes and circumstances of death
Autopsies will be performed on both bodies. “during the day of Sunday and Monday”according to the Poitiers prosecutor’s office, to determine the causes of death. “It will depend a lot on the state of the bodies”explains Saturday on franceinfo Guillaume Groult, deputy national secretary of the Snipat union (Independent national union of technical and scientific administrative personnel of the national police) in charge of scientific personnel, who also salutes the work of forensic doctors, “colleagues who are dear to us”.
From there the investigators will try to reconstruct exactly the sequence of events. This evening at the end of November when Leslie and Kevin spent the evening with a friend in Prahecq in Deux-Sèvres. The couple was then to join the house of another friend, Tom Trouillet, to spend the night there but they never gave any sign of life.
It will also be necessary to determine the motive for these crimes, premeditated murders according to the investigators. The work of the scientific police, “it is often to connect objects, people and places”specifies Guillaume Groult, “whether through DNA fingerprinting or material analysis”. “In a rural environment, for example, the compositions of the land can be useful in determining whether someone has visited a place”, he details. “All of this – with the digital traces of the telephones for example – is given to the investigators who try to form leads and hypotheses which can allow to push in a entrenchments an individual who is suspected.”