the rape complaint “was poorly handled” according to the family’s lawyer

The mother of Lina, the 15-year-old teenager who disappeared in Alsace on September 23, and her lawyer welcome the work of investigators to find the young girl, but regrets that a rape complaint filed by Lina was not better handled .

Fanny Groll has not heard from her daughter, Lina, since September 23. “I would like to know, to understand,” the mother declared to the press this Friday February 2 in Strasbourg. The 15-year-old girl disappeared after leaving her home in Plaine (Bas-Rhin) to go to the Saint-Blaise-la-Roche station, about three kilometers away. A judicial investigation “against X” was opened for “kidnapping and sequestration not followed by voluntary release of more than seven days”. But despite the significant research resources deployed, the investigation is progressing slowly, the last communications from the prosecution date back to October 2023, details BFMTV specifying that no avenue was then ruled out or favored.

During the press conference this Friday, Fanny Groll’s lawyer, Me Airoldi, said he regretted that since the appointment of two investigating judges, “there is nothing left in the file”, also pointing out fingers the treatment he considers bad of a complaint for “gang rape” filed by Lina two years before her disappearance. “I do not understand the way in which this matter was handled by the parquet of Salerno”, he said before asking for “explanations” on the dismissal of the complaint. At the end of January, the Saverne public prosecutor’s office announced that it had carried out a “new legal study” of the complaint. According to the Daily Latest NewsAlsace, two men had admitted the sexual relations by affirming that they were consensual relations. However, “as soon as the investigation into Lina’s worrying disappearance was opened, this information was immediately communicated and used by the investigators”, then specified the Saverne prosecutor, Aline Clérot, recalls France Info. The two young men were also exonerated in Lina’s disappearance, says the franceinfo website. Lina’s mother, Fanny Groll, announced that she would become a civil party to allow the case to be re-examined by the Saverne public prosecutor’s office. She believes that the justice system did not “protect” her daughter enough.

A “partial return” of judges by mid-March

The lawyer nevertheless wanted to salute “the long-term work of the investigators”, “I have nothing to say about the investigation itself”. Just before the mother and her lawyer spoke, BFMTV announced that the investigations had been relaunched after a new report. Investigators are now looking for testimony about a 20-year-old man. “Can you ask your daughter if (…) she has already discussed, met a man of around 20 years old, in a playground, in September 2023”, they asked the parents of all schoolgirls by email “having at least started his school year at the Frison-Roche college”.

This man would have been seen lurking around a playground located in Saulxures, four kilometers from the road on which Lina’s phone was blocked for the last time, reveals The Dispatch. The testimony of a friend of the missing girl also echoes a man who allegedly followed them twice, eight days before Lina disappeared. “He opened the door, he stepped outside and he observed my daughter, who was on the phone. He was looking at her and she was pretending to talk until he drove away,” he said. the mother of this teenager. This press conference is an appeal launched by Lina’s mother and her lawyer who hope that people with “supposed and concrete information” can come forward and advance the investigation. While Fanny Groll had expressed her “frustration” at not being kept more informed of the investigation, the lawyer indicated that a “partial return” must be given by the judges to the family by the middle of -March, notes BFMTV.