The teenager, who has not been heard from since Saturday morning, disappeared while going to the station closest to her home. The Saverne prosecutor’s office is not ruling out “any leads”.
She disappeared on her way to the station. Lina, 15, has not given any sign of life since late Saturday morning in the Saint-Blaise-la-Roche area, a small town of around 230 inhabitants in Bas-Rhin, located around sixty kilometers from Strasbourg. Alerted around 2 p.m. the same day, the gendarmerie launched a call for witnesses. Investigation for worrying disappearance, led by the Saverne public prosecutor’s office, was entrusted to the Strasbourg research section. The first searches took place on Saturday, with the support of a dog team and a helicopter. They continued on Tuesday September 26. In vain. “We are not ruling out any leads and are actively continuing investigations to find the young girl,” assured the Saverne prosecutor on Tuesday afternoon.
A call for witnesses launched on Saturday
In its call for witnesses launched on Saturday, the gendarmerie specified that Lina has shoulder-length blonde hair and is 1m60 tall. On the day of her disappearance, she was dressed in a gray dress, a white down jacket and white Converse shoes. According to the gendarmes, she left on Saturday, around 11 a.m., from her home located in the small town of Plaine, in the Bruche valley, to go to the Saint-Blaise-la-Roche station, three kilometers away. . She had to take a train there at 12:03 p.m. towards Strasbourg, to meet her boyfriend. The latter, not seeing her arrive, “immediately alerted the family” of the young girl, reports the Saverne prosecutor’s office.
No leads ruled out
According to the gendarmerie, Lina walked from her home to the Saint-Blaise-la-Roche station, located three kilometers from her home, using the D350 road. She then had to take a cycle path on the last part of the journey. Checks carried out on site confirmed that she had not boarded the train, the Saverne public prosecutor’s office said on Monday. “Certainly, the path she took from her house to the station is in an area where there aren’t too many houses and there is a little bit of traffic, but it’s not a cut -throat”Patricia Simoni, the mayor of Plaine, the teenager’s town of residence, told BFMTV.
“Two witnesses saw Lina on the way to the station between 11:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.”clarified the Saverne prosecutor at a press conference Tuesday evening, noting that “along its route, no trace on the roadway or shoulder was observed suggesting a road accident.” His phone was not found and no banking activity on his account has been noted since his disappearance.
“We are not ruling out any leads and are actively continuing investigations to find the young girl,” she continued, specifying that the teenager’s entourage “has not reported any recent or long-standing runaway to support a voluntary disappearance.” “This is a family with no particular problems to my knowledge”for her part assured the mayor of La Plaine to France 3.
Volunteers mobilized for a hunt
Search operations have also been carried out since Saturday at the scene of the possible disappearance with the reinforcement of a dog team, a helicopter and drones. On Monday, more than a hundred volunteers took part in a hunt, after an appeal launched by the family of the missing woman, reports France Bleu Alsace.
The girl’s mother briefly spoke to journalists on Monday afternoon. “My daughter Lina, 15 years old, disappeared on Saturday morning. She had to leave the house at 11 a.m. (…) Around 11:20 a.m. she sent a message to her boyfriend, it was the last time we heard contacts with her (…)”, she explained in particular, very moved. She thanked all the people participating in the search and the gendarmerie, “for its responsiveness”.
The search resumed Tuesday morning, with a citizen search of around 400 volunteers remaining in vain, reports France 3 Grand-Est. The raked perimeter had been extended compared to the day before, near the Breux pond. This is where the girl’s phone stopped working.
“We are in the semi-mountain, it’s very steep, there are a lot of places where we don’t necessarily have access, it’s complicated”described Audrey, an acquaintance of Lina’s mother who participated in the search on Monday. “We don’t see why she would have strayed from the street, that’s what worries us. It’s a little incomprehensible given the path she had to take initially,” she continued.
At a press conference Tuesday evening, the prosecutor announced that the “water places” of the sector would be surveyed in the coming days.