MAELYS CASE. Nearly five years after the murder of their child and separated, the parents of little Maëlys, Jennifer Cleyet-Marrel and Joachim de Araujo, are struggling to overcome the tragedy. Their eldest daughter, Colleen, has for the first time expressed her grief publicly.
[Mis à jour le 9 février 2022 à 17h50] Their lives changed the night of August 26 to 27, 2017, when their eight-year-old daughter, Maëlys, was kidnapped and killed by Nordahl Lelandais. More than four years after the tragedy, Joachim de Araujo and Jennifer Cleyet-Marrel can finally confront their daughter’s killer in court, even if it means going back to painful memories. The death of Maëlys marked the beginning of a descent into hell for these parents. “My whole life has been shattered. I know that this suffering will always be present”, testified Joachim de Araujo in the Parisian, January 7. The couple did not survive the loss of the child and separated a few years after the disappearance of the little girl. The father also confides that he lost his job and no longer “knows what [se] hang up”. Maëlys’ mother turned to writing to grieve and alleviate her suffering. She tells her story and that of her daughter in a book published at the end of January, Maelys. My daughter. Killed. At 8 and a half years old. The pain caused by the death of Maëlys is still as strong four years later, when the parents and the little girl’s big sister enter the courtroom of the Grenoble Assize Court together on January 31, 2021. Armed of their memories and portraits of Maëlys, they intend to pay a last tribute to their child.
Why did Maëlys’ parents separate?
The couple remains united during the six months of investigation which separates the kidnapping of Maëlys and the confessions of Nordahl Lelandais. When they learn of the death of the child, Jennifer Cleyet-Marrel and Joachim de Araujo try to overcome this loss together but realize after a little over a year: the disappearance of their child was right of their couple. “When you’re in an atmosphere where all the good memories turn into sadness, misfortune, it’s complicated. We want to get away from it all, think about something else. That’s probably what explains our separation” , tries to explain Joachim de Araujo, in an interview with Parisian in early January. Remained discreet about her private life, Maëlys’ mother gives the same explanations about her separation in the pages of her book. “It’s not the love that’s going away. It’s the environment that’s different. […] I can no longer love you because seeing you reminds me of all my lost love for our Maëlys“, she writes about her former companion.
Two miscarriages after the death of Maëlys
Jennifer Cleyet-Marrel and Joachim de Araujo had planned to marry in 2018 but the death of de Maëlys inevitably delayed the project and the parents invested themselves in order not to let the drama engulf their couple. We learn in the book signed by Maëlys’ mother that the parents tried to have a new child but the attempts ended in two miscarriages, in 2018 and 2019, adding to their misfortune. “Each time, the baby should have been born in November, like Maëlys. There are coincidences in life,” said the mother. It was the difficulties in giving birth that ended up keeping Jennifer and Joachim away from each other. “We felt like we were only attracting death around us. So I decided to leave. I blamed myself for Colleen and Maëlys, but I was suffocating,” Jennifer de Araujo told AFP. Parisian before adding: “It was a question of survival”.
Loss of work and relocation
In addition to the loss of their little girl, the failure of their relationship, Jennifer Cleyet-Marrel and Joachim de Araujo have both lost their jobs. The father, a plumber but now unemployed, has the sole objective that Nordahl Lelandais “never come out of prison again, to never hurt anyone again” as he explained on RTL. The mother of the little girl, a nurse, had time to grieve thanks to her colleagues who donated two and a half years of RTT to her. At the end of this leave, returning to the hospital was difficult for the nurse. “I had a hard time being confronted with death. I saw people leaving alone, a bit like Maëlys, and that echoed my pain. I was less able to bear people’s complaints for a yes or a no, too” , she tells the Ile-de-France newspaper. She had the idea of asking for a transfer to the maternity service before being dissuaded by the proximity to the children. Today, Jennifer Cleyet-Marrel left Pontarlier hospital to become a liberal nurse.
In addition to this new job, there is a new house for the little girl’s mother, who is located two hours from La Tour-du-Pin, where Maëlys rests. The little girl is present in every room thanks to photos and words written to her mother. Joachim de Araujo lives in Pontarlier, in the Jura. The mother preferred to leave the house she lived in when Maëlys was alive. The first months after the child’s disappearance were particularly difficult.
Maëlys’ parents supported by their second daughter, Colleen
The parents of little Maëlys were not the only ones to suffer from the death of the girl. Colleen, Maëlys’ older sister suffered a lot and left the carefree childhood too quickly. Joachim de Araujo acknowledges that his oldest daughter has been a great support despite her young age and has had to bear the pain of her parents as well as her own. “Unfortunately, following the tragedy that we experienced, Colleen grew up too quickly. With these events, she placed herself between her mother and her father, when we were lost,” he says, still at Parisian. The teenager was only 13 years old when her little sister, to whom she was very close” died. The absence of Maëlys remains four years after the tragedy, which is still difficult to bear for the young girl. sister misses him terribly. She did a lot of things with Maëlys”. However, Joachim de Araujo salutes “the courage” and “the maturity” shown by his eldest.
The teenager who remained discreet spoke publicly about the tragedy which upset her family on February 6 during the trial of Nordahl Lelandais. Colleen moved the Assize Court of Isère with a text addressed to her sister and describing little Maëlys as an “example”, “a warrior”. From the height of her 17 years, the teenager also confronted her sister’s killer and demanded answers, an example of courage and dignity: “Look me in the eye: did you rape my sister?” The statement is strong filled with sadness and anger but it is not enough to get a response from Nordahl Lelandais.