The conclusions of the autopsy on Lina’s death were made public via a press release from the interim Strasbourg prosecutor on Thursday December 19.
The circumstances of the death of Lina, a 15-year-old teenager who disappeared on September 23, 2023 in Alsace and whose body was found on October 16, 2024, are becoming clearer. But there also remain several gray areas and uncertainties about what the teenager suffered. Starting with the causes of death. “The autopsy operations did not make it possible to formally determine the cause of death,” said the acting prosecutor of Strasbourg, Alexandre Chevrie, in a press release published on Thursday, December 19. However, forensic analyzes suggest the hypothesis of death by strangulation.
Several elements “tend to demonstrate” that Lina was killed by strangulation “using the handles” of a “tote bag” type bag, explains the prosecutor. The presence of a “horizontal furrow under the chin” and the discovery of tissue at the young girl’s neck support this hypothesis.
If certain questions about what Lina suffered find answers, even partial, others remain gray areas. The fault lies in the state of deterioration of the body which, found 10 months after the disappearance of the teenager and exposed for a long time in an aquatic environment, does not allow all the usual checks to be carried out. It was, for example, “not possible to carry out a gynecological examination or sample” to determine whether Lina was a victim of sexual violence. Traces of other violence, apart from strangulation, could not be confirmed or denied either.
The main suspect would have acted alone
On the other hand, death by drowning was completely ruled out, although the body was found “partly submerged”. “No trace of narcotic, medicinal or toxic substances” was found and “genetic analyzes carried out on the clothing” were negative.
Samuel Gonin, the main suspect in the case who committed suicide last July, is said to have acted alone. “No link has been established between this and other facts of a similar nature,” says the prosecutor.
More than 400 people interviewed by investigators
In this case, “in total, more than 400 people were interviewed and several hundred thousand telephone numbers were cross-referenced”, explains General Dominique Lambert, head of the judicial investigators of the national gendarmerie, interviewed by RTL. “Practically 8.5 million pieces of data were collected by the investigators,” he underlines.
Other analyzes are still in progress and the investigations have not been completed. The judicial investigation should close “at the end of the first half of 2025”.