Samuel Gonin, the main suspect in the case of Lina, a 15-year-old girl who disappeared in Bas-Rhin a year ago, committed suicide last July. The man’s profile is becoming clearer.
Nearly a year after the disappearance of Lina, 15, a man is suspected of being linked to the case, before committing suicide last July. This man is Samuel Gonin, aged 43. BFMTV revealed this Friday, August 30, new information concerning this father, considered the main suspect in this disappearance.
On July 10, the forty-year-old hanged himself after leaving a letter addressed to his children. “He’s going to write ‘I can’t control myself anymore, it’s going too fast, I’m suffering too much and it’s better this way’,” Valentin Collin, a journalist at Est Républicain Besançon, reported to BFMTV.
The investigation into Lina’s disappearance was stalling as police officers tried to identify all the cars that had driven along the departmental road where the young girl was last seen on September 23, 2023. Investigators were interested in a light gray Ford Puma, stolen and registered in Germany. They found traces of the vehicle in a pound 800 kilometers from the scene, in Narbonne. Lina’s DNA was found there, and a suspect was identified for the first time. It was Samuel Gonin, arrested at the wheel of the same vehicle in January.
An “everyman”
Samuel Gonin, a father of two young children, seems to lead an ordinary life. He appeared in the columns of the local press in 2016, where he recounts having lost and then found 700 euros in cash in a shopping centre. He recounts having spent it on his children’s Christmas presents.
The man is described as a jack-of-all-trades: he was a salesman, a vehicle salesman and even a cabinetmaking teacher in a vocational high school. “He was someone who was very much appreciated by the students and the other teachers,” assures Frédéric Chabord, the high school’s director. “He was someone who was quite discreet but very involved in the educational project.”
In 2023, his attitude changes when he separates from his wife and moves away from his father. “He disappears for the first time. He will send us text messages, to me and to his mother, telling us that it is over for him, for this life,” recalls Edmée, his former partner. “At first, he says that he wants to commit suicide. So his mother calls the police to make a missing persons alert.” He is then admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
Sentenced to 15 months suspended prison sentence after forcing through toll barriers
When he got out, he stole 5,000 euros from his partner and became addicted to cocaine. A month before Lina disappeared, he tried to steal the bag of a 90-year-old woman. “I held her back. He dragged me, I fell on my knees and he was still pulling me with my bag. He made me fall on my arm, which broke, and he ran away,” the woman explained.
Three hours later, he robs a convenience store by threatening the cashier. It is on this same day that he appears at the wheel of the car in which Lina’s DNA is found.
Six months later, he received a 15-month suspended sentence after forcing through the barriers of a toll booth where customs officers tried to check him while he was heading to Spain. Last July, he was arrested again for theft. 12 days before his hearing, he decided to commit suicide.
There is no evidence at this time that he murdered the young girl, whose body or trace have not been found.