The searches in the Saulx woods in Haute-Saône ended on Thursday afternoon, after three days of searching.
Since Tuesday, investigators have been searching the Saulx woods, near Vesoul. It is located approximately 130 km from where Lina disappeared. The teenager disappeared on September 23 on the road between Plaine and the Saint-Blaise-la-Roche train station. For three days, 90 gendarmes explored the woods to try to find Lina, helped by around fifteen soldiers belonging to a specialized operational search unit, as well as investigators from the Gendarmerie Criminal Research Institute (IRCGN), canine brigades and dogs specialized in searching for human bodies.
This research was based on GPS records from the stolen car, in which DNA traces of the teenager were found. According to these, a stop was made in this forest. The Saulx woods are also on one of the suspect’s possible routes to reach Besançon, his place of residence, from Plaine.
According to BFMTV, Thursday’s search was the last day in this area. The police stopped around 4:30 p.m. after searching 40 hectares of the forest. The searches appear to have been unsuccessful, and no information has been released on any progress in the investigation. Last week, the searches were more focused on the Anould forest in the Vosges. The police have not yet revealed whether a new location will be combed soon.
In the footsteps of the suspect
The driver of the vehicle, whose tracks the police are following, Samuel G., is the main suspect in the case. However, investigators were unable to interview him since he committed suicide shortly after the vehicle was seized, fueling suspicions about his guilt. Investigators were only able to look at his phone data and his car journeys.
According to The Parisianthe driver is described as a “local thug”, who allegedly kidnapped Lina when he came across her on his way, without knowing her. He then allegedly killed the teenager. And the analyses of the car went in the direction of the police who suspected the criminal lead, an important step forward as the investigation had been stalling since the beginning.
Samuel Gonin was a 43-year-old father who taught cabinetmaking at a vocational school before leaving his job in 2023. That same year, he committed two violent robberies for which he should have appeared in court in July 2024. On June 12, 2024, he was arrested again for a case of kidnapping before being cleared of any wrongdoing. Before the appearance scheduled for July 22, 2024, he had been diagnosed with a “borderline” personality disorder by a psychiatric expert who also noted his “dangerousness”, as well as severe depressive symptoms.
An investigation that has been floundering for several months
As a reminder, Lina disappeared on September 23, 2023, late in the morning after leaving her home in Plaine to take a train at Saint-Blaise-la-Roche station and meet her boyfriend in Strasbourg. When she didn’t arrive, the young man alerted Lina’s mother. Several witnesses, including the village mayor, said they saw the young woman heading towards the station between 11:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. And the investigation revealed that her phone stopped transmitting at 11:22 a.m.
At the beginning of the investigations, suspicions focused on Lina’s boyfriend, but the police quickly ruled him out. Last March, three men were taken into custody before being released due to a lack of “incriminating evidence”. And in May, a new lead was being explored after a local business owner explained that one of his employees had disappeared in September, around the same time as Lina. The man in question had vanished overnight, even though he had been working for the company on a permanent contract for twelve years. The business owner added that his employee lived “very close” to Lina’s home.