Almost three months after the disappearance of Karine Esquivillon, her husband, Michel Pialle, ended up declaring that he had killed her. Before cracking, the 50-year-old constantly defended his story in the media, insisting that his wife had left voluntarily.
For nearly three months, in front of the cameras and in the press, Michel Pialle assured without blinking that his wife, Karine Esquivillon, had evaporated in Maché (Vendée) March 27, without telling anyone. She only took with her “a lot of things, which she had already prepared in advance”, had in particular affirmed on May 21 this father of a family of 54 years to France Bleu Loire Océan. In police custody, in front of the investigators, his precise story finally cracked, on the night of Thursday to Friday June 16, until he confessed: he admitted having killed her, by accident, a-t- he pointed out, cleaning his gun. After leading the gendarmes to the body of the deceased, he was indicted “for murder of a spouse” and placed in pre-trial detention.
His profile is reminiscent of that of Jonathann Daval, this thirty-something who had shown the face of a grieving widower in the media at the end of 2017. He was finally confused, three months after the discovery of the body of his wife in a forest , confessing to punching and choking her after an argument. In these two cases, the suspects showed a disconcerting assurance in their accounts, despite the gravity of the facts. “Precisely: the more important the stake, the more you have to convince”explains a forensic psychologist to franceinfo, who prefers to remain anonymous.
The lie, a “cinema” to oneself
“There is a shame in having committed a crime on someone with whom we had a history”, he analyzes, and this feeling can be so strong that the suspect is forced to “deny yourself”. He succeeds, by lying, “to give an image of his own person which seems acceptable to him, and which he will then try to preserve, for others therefore, but also for himself”.
For the psychiatrist Jean Canterino, this is what Jonathann Daval did by choosing to lie publicly, in particular during a white march in tribute to his wife, where he appeared collapsed. “The cinema, he made it more to himself than to others, to support what he had done. He did not seek so much to manipulate as to put dust under the carpet”, details the one who appraised him during his trial.
The psychologist interviewed by franceinfo recalls for his part that “lying is a symptom, not a pathology in itself. It is the sign of behavioral disorders of narcissistic personalities, who will seek to enhance or victimize themselves”, he specifies. To lie as much as Michel Pialle and Jonathann Daval did, “you have to be in a narcissistic need vis-à-vis yourself, with the will to build what you are not”, assures Jean Canterino. Even before his acting out, Michel Pialle was moreover described by those close to him as a “mythomaniac” Who “invented a life”.
Stories that are too “fixed” put a flea in the ear
If the account of the two men, who proclaimed their innocence in the death of their wife, could appear credible, the aspect very “fixed” of the description of the facts could put the chip in the ear of the investigators. “When we know that we are lying and that there are very important issues behind it, we will try not to contradict each other, to be hyper-coherent, by having a very well-established story, which could be replicated from one interrogation to another”, notes the forensic psychologist.
“If the version is completely identical each time, that gives an indicator: the suspect has found a defense system and he repeats it.”
A forensic psychologistat franceinfo
Thus, from one interview to another, Michel Pialle could have had completely identical sentences. “I must be one of the few people in France to have been happy to have the police at home”, he repeated, for example, in various reports. When a person speaks the truth, “the story can evolve and fragments of memories are added little by little”, says the psychologist. His version will therefore not necessarily be totally the same, especially in the first days of the investigation.
‘Very intense levels of depression’ after confession
So how do you get such a determined liar to give in? “You have to identify the blockages: what makes the person not speak? Shame? To protect yourself? To protect someone else? The investigators play on it a lot”, says the specialist, according to whom it is often the consequences of an indictment on children that can be scary. Some also hold, year after year, “so as not to let the system collapse”points out Jean Canterino. “When a person has erected massive defenses, the rampart collapses, narcissism with it: they can reach very intense levels of depression, with suicidal impulses”notes the psychiatrist.
But telling the truth can also relieve. “The image of a parent who has committed the irreparable is very hard to endorse. Assuming acts and regretting them is easier to defend than getting stuck in something untenable”, adds forensic psychologist. “If the person has spoken, it is also that there is something left on the side of life, a way of trying to find a solution. To speak is to accept the outstretched hand of those who ask the questions”, he concludes.