This Thursday, during the excavations to find Héléna Cluyou, missing since January 29 in Brest, the police found a charred body. While the main suspect hitherto hospitalized died according to information from RMC.
Avalanche of twists and turns in the investigation into the disappearance of Héléna Cluyou. While excavations began on Thursday February 9 to find the young woman who had been missing since January 29, the judicial police discovered a charred body in the search area, a wooded area south of the harbor of Brest (Finistère). The excavation area where the macabre discovery was made was delimited according to the suspect’s last movements, themselves deduced during the examination of the mobile phone of the respondent. It is still impossible to identify the body as that of the 21-year-old student.
At the same time, RMC announced the death of the main suspect in the case of Héléna Cluyou. The 36-year-old man was hospitalized in intensive care after making a double suicide attempt on February 4. The suspect between life and death could not be questioned by the judicial police of Brest, in charge of the investigation. The 30-something was considered the main suspect because before reaching his days, he would have confessed to his brother and his sister-in-law “a stupidity”, evoking “the affair that everyone is talking about in Brest.” Other elements of the investigation, such as his travels and the discovery of his car completely burnt and abandoned in Brest, a week after the death of Héléna Cluyou, put the flea in the ear of the investigators.
The police are pursuing several leads to explain the disappearance of Héléna Cluyou, but all of them have to do with the main suspect. The track of the kidnapping is privileged, but that of the car accident is also considered, both are reinforced by the discovery of the charred car of the charred suspect. “We are waiting for a more precise scenario. We are still far from the clarifications that everyone is waiting for and we must keep control before drawing any conclusion,” warned prosecutor Camille Mansioni.
What do we know about the disappearance of Héléna Cluyou in Brest?
Héléna Cluyou, a 21-year-old student, disappeared on the morning of Sunday January 29, 2023, after spending the night with friends at “The One” nightclub in Brest. The young woman left the establishment, alone and after the departure of her relatives, around 5:20 am. In front of the club, Héléna Cluyou “was drunk but she was not drunk either. She was not pitching”, according to the testimony of the student who was the last to see the nurse in study with the Figaro. Héléna Cluyou, having run out of battery on her cell phone, asked the young man if she could borrow his phone to reach the friend with whom she was originally due to return. Not remembering the number, it was via the Instagram network that the student tried to reach her loved one at 6:02 a.m. and again at 6:04 a.m., on the initiative of the young man. Without a response from her friend and after a while of waiting, Héléna walked away towards the Kerbonne district, where she lives with her grandmother. The witness added that he stayed there for another ten minutes and had no one following the young woman on foot, while according to his memories only a few cars passed in front of the nightclub.
The last trace of Héléna Cluyou after this exchange is a video surveillance image taken at 6:42 a.m. in the Recouvrance district, west of Brest, near the Mac Orlan tram stop. The young woman appears alone with her coat just a ten-minute walk from her grandmother’s house. The rest of the student’s journey is still a mystery.
What do the police searches show?
The police began the search as soon as the disappearance was reported, on the evening of Sunday January 29, to try to find Héléna Cluyou. Several teams were dispatched to the place of disappearance in order to collect the testimonies and to access the surveillance videos of the nightclub. CCTV footage from the city has found a last trace of the young woman of 21, near the Marc Orlan tram stop located a few minutes from the home where she lives with her grandmother.
The canine brigade mobilized for the research did indeed find the olfactory trace of the young woman, but the dogs of the investigators lost this trace at the level of Place Prat-Lédan. At this stage, Héléna Cluyou has still not been found.
What leads on the disappearance of Héléna Cluyou?
In the Héléna Cluyou case, no lead has yet been ruled out, but two stand out. The young nursing student could have gotten into the suspect’s car, willingly or by force, and been abducted by the latter, or it could have been a car accident. In both cases, the suspect and his car are involved. For what ? First, because before attempting suicide, the suspect repeated to his brother and sister-in-law that he had done something “silly” and mentioned an “accident” about the disappearance of Héléna Cluyou. Then, because a week after the disappearance of the young woman, the suspect’s car was found completely burned and abandoned in a city of Brest.
During the search carried out at the main suspect’s home on February 7, no incriminating element such as traces of blood or proof of the passage of Héléna Cluyou was found. But the car could present evidence of the presence of the young woman in the passenger compartment in the event of kidnapping or on the hood of the car if we follow the hypothesis of the accident. By setting fire to his car, the suspect could have wanted to destroy evidence. All this is still only at the hypothesis stage.
Who was the suspect in the disappearance of Héléna Cluyou?
The main suspect in the case of the disappearance of Héléna Cluyou, identified on February 4, died on Thursday February 9 according to information from RMC. The 36-year-old had been between life and death and hospitalized since early February after attempting suicide twice. These are the testimonies of the brother and the sister-in-law of the suspect who made it possible to identify him, the latter would have mentioned to them a “stupidity”, an “accident”, about the case “which we are talking about in Brest for five days”, according to the details of the public prosecutor of Brest, Camille Miansoni, on February 5.
According The Parisian, the suspect is 36 years old, simply known for business theft. He was “unstable, without limits when he was partying but not violent” explains an ex-girlfriend. Passed by the Foreign Legion before integrating the world of cooking, he worked in a restaurant near the club where Héléna Cluyou had spent the night before disappearing. The suspect was known to the Brest nightlife and would have toured the establishments the evening of the student’s disappearance without going to the One Club where he was “persona non grata” according to the manager of the box, Max Pellois, with of Ile-de-France daily.