A large-scale search operation is underway in the Vosges to try to find Lina’s body. The main suspect committed suicide after the seizure of the vehicle in which the teenager’s DNA was found last week.
THE ESSENTIAL
- Following the disappearance of Lina, 15, in September 2023 in the Vosges, major search operations for the teenager’s body have been underway since Tuesday morning by the gendarmerie.
- The investigation took a new turn after the identification of a man, the main suspect in the girl’s kidnapping. He is the driver of the vehicle that has been wanted since the beginning of the investigation.
- While the car was seized for DNA samples, the driver committed suicide, greatly fueling suspicions about his guilt.
- At around 5pm on Tuesday, the Strasbourg prosecutor announced that despite the resources deployed to find the teenager’s body, these “have not yet enabled us to find any trace of Lina”.
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17:26 – The suspect allegedly offered Lina a ride in his car before killing her
According to information from the Parisian and the scenario currently accepted by the justice system and the police is that the main suspect allegedly kidnapped Lina when he came across her on his way. “He allegedly offered to take her by car and then killed her in circumstances that remain to be clarified,” the daily newspaper said. The DNA found in the car in question already confirms the hypothesis that the 15-year-old girl was transported on board.
17:07 – 80 gendarmes searching for Lina in the Vosges
This Tuesday, July 30, 2024, no fewer than 80 gendarmes are currently engaged in the search for the body of Lina, 15, who disappeared in September 2023. A figure communicated this afternoon by the public prosecutor of Strasbourg.
17:04 – No trace of Lina, says Strasbourg prosecutor
The Strasbourg public prosecutor has just announced that despite the significant effort deployed to try to get their hands on Lina’s body, investigators, IRCGN experts, canine teams, dogs specializing in human remains and ground penetrating radar “have not been able to find any trace of Lina whatsoever”.
16:45 – What happened to Lina?
Lina disappeared on September 23, 2023, late in the morning after leaving her home in Plaine to take a train at Saint-Blaise-la-Roche station and meet her boyfriend in Strasbourg. When she didn’t arrive, the young man alerted Lina’s mother. Several witnesses, including the village mayor, said they saw the young woman heading towards the station between 11:15 and 11:30. And the investigation revealed that her phone stopped transmitting at 11:22. The teenager’s body has not been found since.
16:14 – Suspect found dead in Besançon
According to information from BFMTV, the suspect was found having committed suicide in Besançon (Doubs) at the beginning of July. The car, a gray Renault Clio, was found in Languedoc-Roussillon, between the end of May and the beginning of June. It was one of the dozens of cars being sought in connection with Lina’s disappearance, the media outlet specifies.
15:58 – An anthropologist and a georadar present for the excavations
During the searches currently underway to try to get their hands on Lina’s body, significant resources have been deployed, in addition to the police force. Dogs specializing in human remains are being mobilized, as is an anthropologist from the IRCGN and a ground penetrating radar, in the Valle de la Bruche, this Tuesday, July 30.
15:42 – Lina would have gotten into a gray Renault Clio
At the center of the debates, the car in which Lina allegedly got into before disappearing. It is a gray Renault Clio. According to several testimonies, the teenager did indeed get into it. Since the end of January, the gendarmes of the investigation unit had been interested in a man who was driving a gray Renault Clio. He allegedly approached young girls in the weeks around Lina’s disappearance.
15:24 – “We are anxiously awaiting what will happen” admits Lina’s mother’s lawyer
“I have complete confidence in the team from the gendarmerie’s research section,” said Matthieu Airoldi, lawyer for Lina’s mother, on Tuesday. “My client and I are waiting, with concern of course, to see what will happen,” he continued. For her part, Marylène Correia, lawyer for Olivier Delsarte, Lina’s father who is separated from the teenager’s mother, did not wish to make any further comments.
15:10 – “Research in a broad sector”
According to information from France Info, the searches that began on Tuesday, July 30, are taking place “without any precise indication of location and in a large area.” “Investigations are continuing in order to find Lina and this in various places,” the public prosecutor of Strasbourg told France Bleu Alsace. Fifty gendarmes, including those from the Criminal Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN) as well as dog squads, are involved.
14:53 – What was the profile of the suspect?
The main suspect who committed suicide appeared to be a “petty common law offender” according to Le Parisien. He was not known for sexual violence, but was still described as a “local thug” who allegedly kidnapped Lina when he came across her on his way, without knowing her. This main suspect then allegedly killed the teenager.
After his death, investigators were only able to look at his phone data and his car journeys. They still managed to establish a search perimeter, which is where the searches are taking place on Tuesday, July 30.
14:47 – The driver of the stolen car committed suicide
This Tuesday, July 30, the investigation took a new turn. After the seizure of the vehicle in which Lina’s DNA was found, the driver, and main suspect for the moment, committed suicide, Le Parisien informs us, greatly fueling suspicions about his guilt.
14:45 – Lina’s DNA discovered in a stolen car
These searches follow the announcement by the Strasbourg prosecutor’s office indicating the presence of Lina’s “genetic profile” in a stolen car, discovered in the south of France a few weeks earlier. This blue car and its driver had been in the investigators’ sights since the start of the investigations. Nine months after Lina’s disappearance, “it is a hope to locate Lina, but there are so many questions behind it, where, when, how…” indicated Marylène Correia, lawyer for Olivier Delsarte, Lina’s father, on Friday.
14:43 – “Investigations are continuing”, the prosecution announces a new update early in the evening
“The Strasbourg prosecutor confirms that investigations are continuing in order to find Lina, at various points. Additional information should be the subject of a press release early this evening,” said the Strasbourg prosecutor’s office on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. The National Gendarmerie Criminal Research Institute is also on site to participate in the search: “The National Gendarmerie Criminal Research Institute (IRCGN) and the Gramat dogs (trained in the search for human remains, Editor’s note) are engaged alongside investigators from the Lina unit and resources from the Grand Est region,” a gendarmerie source told RMC.
14:41 – A large excavation operation underway in the Vosges
Following the announcement by the Strasbourg public prosecutor on Friday, July 27, that Lina’s DNA had indeed been found in a stolen car in the south of France, the investigation took a new turn on Tuesday, July 30. Searches are underway in the Vosges to try to find the teenager’s body.
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Searches began this Tuesday, July 30 in the Grand-Est region, to find the body of Lina, the young girl who disappeared in September 2023 in Bas-Rhin in Alsace, according to information from Le Parisien. Several investigators from the Gendarmerie Criminal Research Institute (IRCGN), as well as canine brigades and dogs specialized in searching for human bodies have been deployed since this morning in the Bruche Valley, the area in which the teenager mysteriously disappeared on September 23. An anthropologist and a ground penetrating radar have also been deployed on site.
These searches follow the announcement by the Strasbourg prosecutor’s office indicating the presence of Lina’s “genetic profile” in a stolen car, discovered in the south of France a few weeks earlier. This blue car and its driver had been in the investigators’ sights since the start of the investigations and the hearings of several witnesses, as well as the analysis of video surveillance images and telephone calls had made it possible to establish that the man was “not far from the point of Lina’s disappearance last September”, indicated the prosecutor’s office.
The main suspect committed suicide
The kidnapping theory, quickly favored by the justice system and the police, according to Le Parisien, describes this man as a “local thug” who allegedly kidnapped Lina by crossing paths with her, without knowing her. This main suspect then allegedly killed the teenager. And the analysis of the car went in the direction of the police who suspected the criminal theory, an important step forward as the investigation has been stalling since the beginning.
However, investigators were unable to hear the driver who committed suicide shortly after the vehicle was seized, fueling suspicions about his guilt. He had not been heard by the police although he had been identified as the individual driving when the car passed through the area where the teenager disappeared. It was a grey Renault Clio. According to several witnesses, the teenager had gotten in. Since the end of January, the police from the investigation unit had been interested in a man who was driving a grey Renault Clio. He had allegedly approached young girls in the weeks around Lina’s disappearance. After the man’s death, investigators were only able to look at his telephone data and his car journeys. They still managed to establish a search perimeter, which is being searched on Tuesday, July 30.
An investigation that has been floundering for several months
As a reminder, Lina disappeared on September 23, 2023, late in the morning after leaving her home in Plaine to take a train at Saint-Blaise-la-Roche station and meet her boyfriend in Strasbourg. When she didn’t arrive, the young man alerted Lina’s mother. Several witnesses, including the village mayor, said they saw the young woman heading towards the station between 11:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. And the investigation revealed that her phone stopped transmitting at 11:22 a.m.
At the beginning of the investigations, suspicions focused on Lina’s boyfriend, but the police quickly ruled him out. Last March, three men were taken into custody before being released due to a lack of “incriminating evidence”. And in May, a new lead was being explored after a local business owner explained that one of his employees had disappeared in September, around the same time as Lina. The man in question had vanished overnight, even though he had been working for the company on a permanent contract for twelve years. The business owner added that his employee lived “very close” to Lina’s home.