An update on the investigations into the Lina case, who disappeared on September 23, 2023, was organized this Thursday by the Strasbourg public prosecutor. If she has not been found, the magistrate affirms: “anything is possible.”
One year after Lina’s disappearance, the Strasbourg public prosecutor, Alexandre Chevrier, held a press conference this Thursday, September 19, 2024. The objective: to take stock of the ongoing investigation and avoid the “inaccurate or fragmentary” information seen in certain media after the “major developments” this summer. As a reminder, the 15-year-old teenager was last seen on September 23, 2023, in Plaine (Bas-Rhin).
At the end of July, the Strasbourg prosecutor’s office announced that Lina’s DNA had been found in a stolen car. It was a Ford Puma stolen in Germany, driven by Samuel G., the main suspect. The 43-year-old man was due to be tried for violent robberies last August, but committed suicide on July 10, 2023 in Besançon (Doubs), a few days before investigators learned that he was driving the stolen car. Since then, his DNA and that of Lina have been found on ropes in the trunk of the car.“Which tends to show that at one time or another, Lina was tied up,” the prosecutor said on Thursday. However, he has not lost hope of getting his hands on the young girl.
“In theory, anything is possible,” says the prosecutor.
Asked about the hope of finding Lina, despite the passage of time and the suicide of the main suspect, the public prosecutor of Strasbourg recalled that the teenager’s body had not been found. “In theory, anything is possible,” he said, appearing almost optimistic in front of journalists. “The investigation is continuing (…) actively,” explained Alexandre Chevrier. “A certain number of questions are likely to remain unanswered due to the death of Mr. Gonin,” he conceded.
Research continues, “substantial resources mobilized”
However, there is “no question of giving up”, and “significant resources remain mobilized” to try to find Lina, alive, or to get their hands on her body, if the latter were to be found lifeless. In total, 400 interviews were collected and 300 vehicles were analyzed. More than twenty gendarmes have also been mobilized in recent weeks on operational searches on the ground.” And what’s next? “Other searches are planned. I won’t say more,” he continues.
The prosecutor took advantage of this press briefing to praise the work of the investigators, which could allow them to “come significantly closer to revealing the truth in this case”. As a reminder, Lina’s mobile phone was last detected on the D350, but has never been found since. “It stopped transmitting at a very specific time”, indicated the prosecutor. “This is consistent with the work of the dog (of the gendarmerie, editor’s note) which stopped Lina’s trail where the phone was last detected, between Plaine and Saint-Blaise-la-Roche”. The phone case was found inside the teenager’s handbag, in the glove compartment of the stolen car.