Will a legal enigma dating back more than a quarter of a century be solved? On December 25, 1995, the headless body of Christophe Doire, 28, was found in a ditch in the Allier. Twenty-seven years later, his 56-year-old widow was indicted for “murder”, announced the public prosecutor of Cusset, Eric Neveu, Thursday, June 30. Franceinfo returns to this “cold case”.
A mysterious disappearance after an argument
At the end of 1995, Christophe Doire was employed at the Vichy slaughterhouses. The young father is “a very good hunter and handler of dogs”relates Le Figaro. But sometimes he ventures “on the lands of other hunting societies”, specifies the daily. This can play tricks on him, like this December 15, when his dog Flora is stolen from him by a hunter he frequents. He finds her the next day, says The Parisian.
On the evening of the 16th, at the family home in Cusset (Allier), an argument broke out with his wife about the fall of a working hair dryer in the bathtub where he was. Annoyed, he then goes to his brother. He spends the evening there before returning home at 11:30 p.m. This is the last time he is seen alive.
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His wife reported him missing two days later, on December 18, when hunting friends worried that they hadn’t seen him. His car was then found in Cusset, specifies The Dispatch. A week later, then December 25, his headless body was discovered in a ditch by hunters. The man suffered exsanguination and his head, never found since, was severed with a butcher’s tool, recalls Le Figaro.
Two dismissals and an investigation reopened in 2020
At first, the investigators are interested in the middle of the hunters. The theft of the dog and the violent death put them on this track. The track of a conflict is considered, before being discarded. A first judicial investigation led to a dismissal in 2000. A second judicial investigation opened two years later also led to a dismissal in 2007. Thirteen years later, in May 2020, the investigation was relaunched by the public prosecutor’s office in Cusset to the proofreading of the file. These new investigations lead to the opening of a judicial investigation for “intentional homicide” in November 2021.
A cell of about fifteen investigators, in particular from the research section of Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme), is formed and carries out new hearings and scientific analyses. Samples are taken from certain people around him, dozens of people are interviewed and “numerous technical investigations” are carried out, according to the prosecutor. The body of the victim was even exhumed to carry out new comparative analyses, in particular on the clothes likely to have been worn the evening of his disappearance.
“All the working hypotheses have been considered: the wife, the family, the hunting community, the villainous affair, the romantic relationships of the victim”details the prosecutor of Cusset Eric Neveu. “We brought a fresh look and worked as if we had just discovered the crime scene (…), as if the crime had just been committed”he adds.
“On a criminal analysis, you have to be very humble: sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are less lucky, but it is easier to investigate with the means that we have in 2022 than in 1995.”
Eric Neveu, prosecutor of Cussetat a press conference
Widow indicted, other possible arrests
The investigators plunged back into the stormy life of the couple as it appeared over the course of the investigations and the hearings. They ended up targeting the victim’s widow, nearly three decades after the murder. While in police custody, she did not “neither denied nor confirmed” the facts, explained the prosecutor.
The magistrate especially noted “its lack of credible explanations” even “his denial, in particular on the situation of his couple”. She “denies conflictual relations with her husband” who nevertheless “stand out from the testimonies and have been highlighted”said Eric Neveu.
Without revealing further the investigation, the prosecutor believes that “serious and consistent clues” put “evidence of his participation in the murder of Christophe Doire”. Even though “the precise circumstances of this acting out require further investigations”note Eric Nephew. The magistrate also reveals that the suspect was able to be helped. Some “elements allow today to consider” that she wouldn’t have acted alone “over the whole process” and “there could be other arrests”, according to him. This 56-year-old woman “incurs a 30-year prison sentence”concluded the prosecutor.