Lina was found dead on Wednesday October 16. The genetic analyzes carried out on the body provided decisive information, other expertise is awaited.
Disappeared on September 23, 2023, young Lina, 15, had not given any sign of life since. She was therefore found dead, destroying the last hopes of the teenager’s loved ones. On Wednesday October 16, 2024, the Strasbourg public prosecutor announced that the body of the young girl had been found “in a wooded and isolated area in the Nevers region”, 400 km from the area where the young girl disappeared. . The body was discovered while “submerged in a stream below an embankment”.
As the prosecutor’s press release specifies, genetic analyzes were carried out urgently by the IRCGN (the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie). They made it possible to confirm that it is indeed the remains of the teenager who had been seen alive for the last time on the path which connects the family home in Plaine, in Bas-Rhin, to the train station in Saint-Blaise-la-Roche. On the day of her disappearance, the teenager had to take the train to meet her boyfriend in Strasbourg for a day of shopping.
The hypothesis of assassination, or at least murder, is an obvious avenue of work for the investigators, who have elements tending to demonstrate that Lina was kidnapped then transported as she wished in a car. Determining the causes of death are now the priority of investigators. The Strasbourg prosecutor has already announced that forensic assessments would be “ordered” by the magistrates. The autopsy promises to be decisive, it could quickly allow us to know how Lina died, whether violent blows were inflicted on her. The work of the forensic doctors promises to be complex, given the immersion of Lina’s body for many months in the watercourse, but this examination is crucial to explain the context of the death.
A murder perpetrated by a 43-year-old man?
For more than a year now, investigators have continued their work in the hope of finding the young woman alive. A suspect was identified in this case, a certain Samuel Gonin, 43 years old. Originally from Doubs and in social and family breakdown, the man finally committed suicide on July 10. “The Ford Puma vehicle used by Samuel Gonin had been geolocated at this location on September 24, 2023, the day after Lina’s disappearance,” the prosecutor said on Wednesday.
It was therefore thanks to the geolocation of the main suspect’s vehicle that investigators were finally able to find the body of the teenager. On July 26, the deputy public prosecutor of Strasbourg revealed that Lina’s handbag had been discovered in the glove box of a geolocated car not far from the place of her disappearance on D-Day, and that The young woman’s DNA was also found in the trunk of the same vehicle, where a rope was also found.
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10:27 – Lina found more than 400 km from home
Lina’s body was found in a town located a few kilometers from Nevers, more than 400 km from the town of Plaine, in Bas Rhin, where she lived and had disappeared on September 23, 2023. An area in which the vehicle stolen and used by Samuel Gonin, the main suspect who committed suicide last summer, has been located and recovered. The body of the teenager was located in the town of Sermoise-sur-Loire “in a wooded and isolated area (…), immersed in a watercourse located below an embankment” specified the prosecutor of the Republic of Strasbourg. The remains were transported by helicopter to Pontoise, in Val-d’Oise, to the premises of the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN) which confirmed the identification of Lina.
09:33 – The emotion of a mother, questioned about Lina’s death
In Alsace, the region of adolescents, the emotion is palpable. At the microphone of RMC, a mother testifies: ““I’m a little… It’s always in the back of my mind and I think it will stay that way,” she said, adding: “It’s good to having found his body. It’s good for the family because they will finally be able to mourn, in quotes, because they will never forget. But not knowing, not having the end, it must have been very hard to live with.”
09:03 – The “pain” of Lina’s parents is “immense”
“Their pain is immense,” said the lawyers of the young girl’s parents in a statement. “Before giving way to contemplation, they remain awaiting reports from the experts dispatched to the site of the discovery,” they added. “The period is very difficult for the family, my client is devastated, I have no particular reaction other than to ask you to respect the family’s mourning,” added Matthieu Airoldi to AFP, Lina’s mother’s lawyer.
10/16/24 – 11:11 p.m. – Lina’s phone, still missing
At this stage, it has not been clarified whether Lina’s cell phone was next to the victim’s body. Only the shell was found in the teenager’s handbag, itself discovered in the glove box of the main suspect’s car. Last July, the public prosecutor indicated that the phone had stopped transmitting “at a specific moment”, shortly after sending a last video of the young woman.