“A few minutes ago, a human remains was discovered in the garden of this family, under the terrace, and the investigation therefore unfortunately clearly switches to a criminal qualification of kidnapping and assassination.“, declared on April 21, 2011 Xavier Ronsin, the prosecutor of Nantes at the time, about the disappearance of the family of Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. If the bodies of his four children and his wife were discovered, the his is nowhere to be found, leaving numerous theories to surface for more than a decade.The statements of one of his relatives, the author of The Impossible Friend, Bruno from Stabenrath, in Point of view rekindled the affair, which had never been forgotten since. He thus presented his theory on the place where he would be, while other revelations took place on August 14th.
Where is Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès? The last time he was seen was at an ATM where he withdrew thirty euros. The next day, April 15, 2011, he abandoned his car in the parking lot of the Formula 1 hotel in Roquebrune-sur-Argens in the Var, and left on foot with a bag over his shoulder, possibly containing his rifle. The seemingly normal man hid big financial troubles, a complex relationship with his mother at the head of an extreme religious movement, Philadelphia, – now taken over by his sister Christine, and a couple that was going badly. For his friend Bruno de Stabenrath, who does not doubt his guilt, he could very well be in the United States, a country he had already visited in his youth.
“The USA is what he has always wanted to return to, the initial journey of his 18th birthday where he is free again. Without family, without problems, where everything is still possible. Perhaps he also had the fantasy of the perfect crime, that of the chess player who masters everything, he who failed in marriage and career; he who disappointed his father by going into debt, then stealing his money. (…) Seven years ago, he was seen in the USA… I’m sure he’s still there. Xavier can bounce back. He left with a lot of money, emptying his wife’s accounts. He is very clever, very attractive. He speaks perfect English and Spanish, he can give French and math lessons, seduce a woman…“, he explains in Point of view. Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès would have done like a “reset”, a reset.
they heard someone speaking French…
Another thesis takes us closer, to France. On August 14, 2022, images captured in Cannes seem to reveal the most wanted man in France in the middle of a walk in the South of France. While he was quietly seated with friends, the TikTokeur Yanik Kaia saw behind him what appeared to be the suspected murderer in the shadows. The broadcast of an episode of Extraordinary investigations on Netflix in 2020 had also revived the tracks since several witnesses had assured to have seen the man in Chicago: “I think they were on Lake Shore Drive, and they heard someone speaking French. They had just seen the episode devoted to Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. They sent us a photo, and the person looks a lot like Xavier, it’s striking“, had told one of the producers to Variety.
Guy Joao had meanwhile been the subject of a high-profile misunderstanding since he was arrested on October 11, 2019, at Glasgow airport, in Scotland, while he was joining his Scottish wife. He had been mistaken for Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès and it was only after the results of his DNA analysis that he could be exonerated.