A terrible tragedy shakes the small town of Clessé, in Saône-et-Loire. The bleeding body of a 14-year-old girl was found in the early hours of a village street on Thursday June 9. Her boyfriend, also 14, confessed to stabbing her. A judicial inquiry has been opened. Here is what we know about this alleged assassination.
A bloody body was found in the middle of the street
The body of the 14-year-old schoolgirl has been found around 6:40 a.m. on the public road, in the wine-growing village of Clessé, near the town hall and its former primary school, Thursday, June 9. The victim had numerous wounds and a knife still stuck in his neck.
Investigators found “several dozen stab marks on the chest, shoulders, face and neck” of the teenagerfound dressed, as well as several “defense injuries” on the forearms in addition to a broken nose, reported Thursday the public prosecutor of Mâcon, Eric Jallet.
Traces of blood were found on a low wall, then on “a path of progression” leading to the body, along which jewelry and then a jacket were found. Thursday evening, a stain of blood could still be seen, and four yellow circles had been drawn on the ground by the investigators on the road leading to the school.
Her boyfriend confessed to stabbing her
The investigation carried out by the research section of the Dijon gendarmerie quickly turned to the boyfriend of the schoolgirl. The latter, also 14, was arrested on Thursday morning at the Victor-Hugo college in Lugny, a village near Clessé, where the victim was also in fourth grade.
Placed in police custody for murder, the schoolboy quickly confirmed having committed the facts. “He admits having agreed to an appointment with this young girl, having taken a knife which he had placed in his sleeve, and having stabbed her three times in the neck”, explained the public prosecutor of Mâcon.
The victim then “tried to flee, but the suspect tried to strangle him and then stabbed him again”, he added, adding that the two teenagers had got into the habit of meeting between midnight and 4 a.m. in Clessé. The parents of the teenager had discovered her disappearance only in the early morning.
No motive was mentioned
The public prosecutor of Mâcon, Eric Jallet, did not mention a motive at this stage of the investigation, but the first testimonies collected by the investigators indicate that the suspect has already had in the past “disturbing words”. He would have already mentioned his desire to “kill someone, especially his girlfriend”with which he had a relationship studded with ruptures and reconciliations, added the magistrate.
The new hearings of the person in custody confirmed “a young man’s desire to kill“, according to the prosecutor, Friday, June 10. “He said he trained in the handling of the knife. He described the blows with precision”explains the magistrate in a press release.
“What happened is totally incomprehensible,” Dijon academy rector Pierre N’Gahane told BFMTV, adding that“no reports of harassment” had only been registered in the teenager’s college.
A judicial inquiry has been opened
A judicial inquiry was opened on Thursday. Without a criminal record, the suspect risks, as a minor, a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment for murder, according to the public prosecutor of Mâcon. “The young man was examined by a psychiatric expert concluding that there was a significant alteration in discernment, without abolition, making him accessible at this stage to a criminal sanction”said the prosecutor, Friday, June 10.
A psychological unit has been set up at the college of Lugny
The rector and the secretary general of the national education services of Saône-et-Loire went Thursday morning to the college of Lugny. A psychological unit has been set up for students and teachers, said the rectorate.
In Clessé, a wine-growing village of 850 inhabitants located about fifteen kilometers north of Mâcon, the primary school that the teenager had attended was however closed on Thursday. In front of the school, a bouquet of white and pink roses was hastily fixed on a railing delimiting the sidewalk, noted an AFP journalist.
“It’s an awful day”, declared to the press the mayor of Clessé, Jean-Pierre Chervier. The victim’s family is “appreciated on Clessé”he added, saying he knew the victim, a “only daughter very nice like her parents”.