Several dozen cases of disappearances with victims never found and sometimes dating back several decades still remain unanswered in France. A look back at six unsolved cases.
Of the “cold cases” the French judicial authorities have hundreds of them. Some of these unsolved cases that are years or even decades old are more mysterious than others because of the lack of victims. Without them or without their remains, it is difficult to lift the veil on the whole truth, despite the (rare) confessions of the suspects. If the disappearances of Estelle Mouzin or other alleged victims of Michel Fourniret have marked the spirits, other cases are still far from being resolved. The Nanterre judicial center dedicated to “cold cases” opened in March 2022 has however relaunched the investigations on a few dozen files. A look back at 6 notable disappearances over which doubt still hovers.
1 – The first missing from the A6
The case dates back to August 1984 when two 22-year-old Belgian hitchhikers, Françoise Bruyère and Marie-Agnès Cordonnier, disappeared around Mâcon. The young women had informed their family of their trip to France, but disappeared two days after their visit to Burgundy. These disappearances, on which the authorities still have no leads or testimony, are the first in the A6 disappearances case, a set of investigations into the disappearance or death of 14 young women on the outskirts of the motorway in a 200 km sector, nicknamed “the triangle of fear”, between 1984 and 2005.
2 – The missing children of Isère
The Disappeared of Isère includes a dozen cases of disappearances or murders of children who took place in the department. If seven children were found dead, four others disappeared in 1980, 1983, 1987 and 1996 and have still not been found: Philippe Pagnot (13 years old), Ludovic Janvier (6 years old), Charazed Bendouiou (10 years old) and Leo Balley (6 years old).
3 – Tatiana Andujar, the disappeared from Perpignan station
The case of Tatiana Andujar is one of four Perpignan station cases that occurred between 1995 and 2001. The 17-year-old young woman was the first person to disappear near the station in 1995, but she is also the only one of four. victims not to have been found. The three other young women who disappeared in 1997, 1998 and 2001 were all found dead and the culprits were convicted: Jacques Rançon for two of them and Marc Delpech for the third. The two men, however, were exonerated in the disappearance of Tatiana Andujar.
4 – The Marion Wagon case
Marion Wagon, a 9-year-old girl, disappeared in Agen in September 1996 when she was leaving school to have lunch with her parents at her home a few hundred meters away. The disappeared left no trace behind her and was never found, despite the significant mobilization of the authorities and the population to look for her. Pedocriminal Michel Fourniret, convicted of numerous murders and rapes of young women and minors, was on the list of suspects, but never admitted any responsibility in the Marion Wagon case before his death in 2021.
5 – The Viguier affair and the disappearance of Suzanne Blanch
It was in February 2000 that Suzanne Blanch-Viguier disappeared, but her absence was only reported a few days later, on 1er March, by her husband Jacques Viguier. The divorce proceedings initiated by the disappeared and the infidelities maintained by the husband made Jacques Viguier the main suspect before the final acquittal of the latter in 2010, for lack of evidence. Since then, the authorities have not found any serious leads and Suzanne Blanch-Viguier has never been found.
6 – The Fiona Affair
The Fiona case is one of the few to have led to a conviction despite the absence of the victim or the discovery of his body. The 5-year-old girl disappeared in May 2003. If her mother and her stepfather, Cécile Bourgeon and Berkane Makhlouf, first mentioned a kidnapping, they ended up confessing to the murder of the child four months after the disappearance. However, they never communicated the burial place of little Fiona explaining that they did not remember the place. It is possible that the body of the girl was hidden in the garbage cans according to several testimonies. Fiona was therefore never found, but there is no doubt, according to the forensic expert who testified during the trial, that the child was the victim of abuse and that this violence could be the cause of death.