More than a week after the disappearance of Erwan Blais in Deux-Sèvres, the nightclub where he was last seen announced its reopening, provoking the anger of the young man’s family.
The search has continued since February 11 and the disappearance of Erwan Blais. An investigation into a “disturbing disappearance” was opened by the Niort public prosecutor’s office. At this stage, no avenue is still favored. The authorities launched a wanted notice on Monday February 12 after the disappearance of the 18-year-old. He was seen leaving a nightclub called La Morinière in Moncoutant-sur-Sèvre, in Deux-Sèvres, on the night of Saturday February 10 to Sunday February 11, around 2:30 a.m. Investigators said this is the last location where his phone would have been geolocated.
According to The Western Mail, the family of Erwan Blais filed a complaint against the managers of the nightclub “for negligence” and “failure to assist a person in danger”. For those close to Erwan, all the conditions were not met to ensure his safety, even though he was allegedly kicked out by a security agent following a minor incident. An exit from the club which, however, took place without violence. The fact remains that the young man, rather drunk at the time, found himself alone, without his friends, in the parking lot of the nightclub. He has not been seen since. “We should never have taken Erwan out of the disco like that, without anyone with him,” lamented the father of the deceased to The New Republic. “He wasn’t that drunk (…). There are a lot of failings and lies in this affair. We put him in danger. That’s why we filed a complaint, to that the prosecution manages,” he then clarified. “We have nothing to reproach ourselves for,” assured one of the co-managers of the nightclub.
Despite this complaint, the manager of the nightclub decided to reopen its doors this weekend, even though the establishment had remained closed since Erwan’s disappearance. The establishment has in fact posted the weekend program on its Facebook page. Those close to Erwan took the news very badly. In a Facebook post, they expressed their dissatisfaction with the decision. Erwan’s mother-in-law even added,Actu.frthat she did not understand “the absence of administrative or judicial closure” of the club.
Research continues
So far, research has yielded nothing on the ground. Tuesday February 13, the search had already accelerated, reported BFMTV, according to whom a drone as well as divers were mobilized. The news channel also claimed that the number of gendarmes on the case had tripled. Thus, while around twenty gendarmes were in place Tuesday morning, no less than 63 were on the bridge in the afternoon, specified a press release from the public prosecutor. But the searches were again in vain.
The gendarmes continued the search on Wednesday and Thursday, notably in the Pescalis park in Moncoutant-sur-Sèvre, which is none other than the largest nature and fishing activity park in Europe. It is located not far from the nightclub where Erwan Blais was last seen alive this weekend. The authorities also widened the search area. The Vendée is now part of the investigations, particularly in the neighboring municipalities of the Deux-Sèvres department.
On Friday, around forty gendarmes were mobilized again. At their side, the La Rochelle nautical brigade, as well as two all-terrain motorcycles and a drone, had specified BFMTV. Thursday, between 60 and 70 gendarmes were on the bridge. In addition to the La Rochelle nautical brigade, a helicopter supported them. Without success unfortunately.
The Niort public prosecutor’s office then announced in a press release this Tuesday, January 20 that “worrying disappearance of judicial information” was now open to continue the research. “At the end of the eight-day period provided for in article 74-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure regarding investigations into worrying disappearances, Erwan Blais has not been found and the circumstances of his disappearance have not been established. elucidated despite the significant resources involved,” he said in the press release. This means that the Niort investigating judge takes charge of the investigation and has all the investigative powers in this case.
A nightclub incident just before the disappearance of Erwan Blais
According to BFMTV, the young man would have left the nightclub where he was partying with his friends around 2:30 a.m. He would then appear on video surveillance images of the nightclub. “We see him crossing the parking lot of the nightclub, then nothing more because of a spotlight which dazzles the camera,” explained his stepmother Karine to the news channel, specifying that “Erwan is a fairly balanced teenager , comfortable in his sneakers, with a classic life of a young person continuing his studies. He is a young person like there are so many.” In any case, his phone would have stopped transmitting around 2:50 a.m.
Near West France, a friend of Erwan Blais, who was with him the evening of the disappearance, also spoke about the events. Assuring that the young man did not arrive drunk at the nightclub, but that he had, like him, “simply a little drunk”, he confided that he, during the evening, separated from him, going see other friends. It was only at the end of the evening, when the nightclub was empty, that he would have realized her absence. Numerous searches in and around the nightclub followed, without success, before a call to the gendarmerie.
A track leading to a studied parking lot
The trail of a parking lot was mentioned by the investigators. “We carried out tracking on Sunday and Monday with two dog teams, which led us to the same place, namely the restaurant parking lot The Saint-Pierre“, revealed the gendarmerie to our colleagues in 20 minutes.
But this path remains fragile. Once we arrived at the parking lot, “we lost track of the young man,” said the same source. According to the daily, it is in this parking lot that Erwan parked his vehicle before going, on foot, to the nightclub, located 500 meters away. A helicopter was therefore sent by the police. Objective: “to fly over the shoulders of the roads, in case the young man was hit by a vehicle”, specified the gendarmerie, which however indicated that this “did nothing”. Surrounding ponds as well as the Sèvre Niortaise were also surveyed by a nautical brigade.
The family increasingly worried
The young man’s family opened a page Facebook dedicated to his research allowing anyone with information to share it with the family and the authorities. In a Facebook post, the sister of the missing man specified that Erwan was wearing “black jeans, a dark green Nike sweatshirt, black and white sneakers” at the time of his disappearance.
Her mother-in-law Karine, deeply distraught, confided in BFMTV. Despite her worry, she remains hopeful and continues the search: “It’s vital, we can’t even imagine sitting around waiting. We’re trying to find something, the smallest element.” “If we had any hope, we would stop everything, we would collapse,” she adds with emotion. The family would imagine “everything that could have happened to him, whether it be the accident, the bad encounter, whether he is stranded, stuck, injured somewhere, whether he cannot move, his cell phone is broken, we considers everything and its opposite.
“We don’t have any leads, we don’t have any element that can allow us to give ourselves an orientation or to favor one track rather than another, so it’s very difficult,” she confided to BFMTV this Sunday February 18, seven days after the disappearance of the young man. The family also announced on their Facebook page that they had found a specialized lawyer to support them in this matter.