DAVAL. While TF1 is broadcasting this Monday, September 12, 2022 a TV movie devoted to the Daval affair, here is what becomes of Jonathan, in prison for several years already, a manipulative murderer of the victim’s family.
A criminal case with many twists and turns, a particularly publicized trial, a confessions book from the parents, another from the defendant’s lawyer and, now, a TV movie. Almost five years after the events, the Daval affair, named after Alexia, a young woman killed and partly burned in October 2017, and Jonathan, her husband, convicted of the murder, is coming back to the fore. this Monday, September 12, 2022. It is not a question of an appeal trial, of a request for release, but of a TV movie made on this file followed throughout France and broadcast by TF1, from 9:10 p.m. Sentenced to 25 years in prison in the fall of 2020, Jonathan Daval is therefore in prison. Locked up, he tried to go unnoticed. However, not enough to be forgotten by the parents of the victim, whose grievances against him will not fade.
For a while, Jonathan Daval tried to fool the investigators and Alexia’s family. Finally, some clues found near the corpse had finally caught the murderer, forced to recognize his act. Placed in pre-trial detention on January 29, 2018, two years before his trial, the 30-year-old was imprisoned in the Dijon remand center, where he had been placed in solitary confinement upon his arrival, given his “notoriety” . Although cut off from the other inmates, he had also had to adopt a false first name in prison: Jonathan had become Kevin. But a blunder from one of his lawyers had finally put an end to the scheme, as his main lawyer, Me Randall Schwerdorferr, explained to Gala (Quoted by Closer).
A little over three years after the start of his incarceration in Dijon, Jonathan Daval changed prison establishment. In May 2021, the murderer had been transferred to a so-called “transition” establishment located in Île-de-France, “with a view to integrating a central house,” as one of his lawyers, Mr. Ornella Spatafora, at theEast Republican. He finally landed at the central house of Ensisheim, in Alsace, “famous” for having been the prison of Guy Georges, Emile Louis or Michel Fourniret. Now, Jonathan Daval rubs shoulders with inmates again, takes part in walks and activities. Me Randall Schwerdorffer told in early July 2022 to Planet that his now ex-client “has a lot of activities, he is very involved in manual or other activities, he still has frequent contact with his family.”
Eternal resentment of the parents of Alexia Daval
A completely broken family bond with Alexia’s family. Authors of a book released on October 28, 2021, the date of the four years of the death of their daughter, the parents of the victim had explained to France info not being able to get up from the drama: “we can’t wake up from such a nightmare. We fall asleep with the nightmare and we wake up with the nightmare. And that’s every day. We took perpetuity.” Forgiveness, never. All the more so after the lies at the start of the investigation. “During [ces] three months, he really put us under control. He sowed little pebbles in our heads to really pass himself off as innocent and to make himself loved by us and to be our son. He called me mum anyway for the three months. If it is not perversion”, said Isabelle Fouillot, who had driven the point home, castigating the attitude of her former son-in-law: “this gentleman is indecent. He insulted our grief for four years, so it’s too much to bear.”
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The death of Alexia Daval was surrounded by a lot of questions in the first weeks following the discovery of her body. The theory of a bad meeting was first favored, given the scenario set out by Jonathan, according to whom, his wife had gone for a jog, this famous Saturday, October 28, 2017.
But little by little, the investigators leaning on the young man, in secret, put the finger on a complex personality and on a couple more problematic than in appearance. They end up arresting Jonathan, at the end of January 2018, before the latter delivers the first part of his confession. He admits to having caused the death of Alexia, but involuntarily, following an argument during which he would have strangled the young woman. This version is in accordance with the elements of the file, which point to the death by asphyxiation of the young banker from Gray. At that time, Jonathan denies, on the other hand, having set fire to the remains.
A few months later, a new turnaround: the thirty-year-old computer scientist once again claims to be innocent. He then accuses his in-laws of having fomented a family plot aimed at hiding the death of Alexia, which would have been caused during the dinner on Friday October 27, 2017, during which his wife would have entered a great phase of anger, then killed by her brother-in-law Grégory Gay. This new lie lasted a few weeks, until Jonathan confronted his in-laws.
In front of Alexia’s mother, Isabelle Fouillot, in tears and on her knees, he finally admits being responsible for Alexia’s death, thus returning to his initial version. Despite everything, there remains the question of the cremation of the body, which he still does not explain to the investigators, leaving room for the existence of a complicity. It will not be until June 2019, during the reconstruction of the facts, that Jonathan Daval confessed to having set fire to the remains of Alexia, where he had deposited the body, in a wood on the edge of Gray.
In an interview given to Parisian on October 28, 2021, the parents confided in each other at length, retracing in particular the last evening before the death of Alexia. “He was sitting on this sofa, always very considerate, busy serving the aperitif. He just arrived a little late. Me, I closed the bar a little earlier than usual to find my daughters and my family, and I am very happy with this evening which is announced” explained the father of Alexia. “Everything is going as usual, in a very natural climate. We notice absolutely nothing, no animosity between Jonathan and Alexia, everything is more normal” explained Isabelle Fouillot for her part.
The day after the murder, the parents said that Jonathan had gone to the house, in a panic, crying: “I calm him down, ask him what’s going on. He replies that Alexia has gone running and that she didn’t come home. I look at the time, tell her that she has to talk to someone, that she shouldn’t worry. But Jonathan is convinced that something has happened to her. At that moment there, Stephanie (their eldest daughter) sees that she has a message from her sister sent earlier. She warns her that she is going for a run and that she might come for a kiss (a message sent by Jonathan Editor’s note).”
The couple also said that Jonathan Daval came to eat every evening after the discovery of the body in the woods. Above all, during the funeral, they sought to console him, when he was guilty. “He makes his little life at home, but comes to eat every evening. We don’t want him to suffer in his corner, when in fact he is already rebuilding himself. Eight days after death of Alexia, he goes to the library to return his books, spends evenings in Dijon or at a friend’s birthday, goes to run a marathon in the Jura… And, at the same time, he tells us that we will be always at home in the house where our daughter was killed. You speak! My childhood home…” Alexia’s mother got carried away. “We almost forbid ourselves to have pain and sorrow ourselves in order to console him, it’s crazy!” added the father.