Who is the young suspect arrested in Switzerland?

Three days after the discovery of the lifeless body of Philippine Le Noir de Carlan, 19, in the Bois de Boulogne, a suspect was arrested. The man is believed to be 22 years old. He was reportedly arrested by Swiss police officers while he was at Geneva train station, relays Actu17Named Taha O., this Moroccan national was to be placed in provisional detention in the evening while waiting for the French authorities to make an extradition request.

Still according to information from Actu17, the suspect was already known to the police. Targeted by an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF), but also by a search sheet linked to this famous OQTF, he had already been convicted in France for the rape of a 23-year-old woman in a wood in Taverny, in the Paris region. Events that occurred in September 2019 and for which he had been incarcerated between March 2022 and June 2024 at the Joux-la-Ville detention center, in Yonne. Last June, he had been transferred to the administrative detention center (CRA) in Metz. According to the Ministry of the Interior, whose RTL relays the remarks, he was released on September 3, due to the lack of a pass issued in time to allow his expulsion to Morocco. It should be noted that Beauvau specifies that the famous pass arrived the following day, as a dig at Bruno Retailleau’s predecessor, while the new government was already experiencing its first tensions.

In the Philippine case, Taha O. was allegedly suspected after his DNA was discovered at the crime scene. DNA that could have quickly led to his identification since it appears in the Automated Judicial File of Perpetrators of Sexual or Violent Offenses (FIJAIS). The suspect also allegedly used Philippine Le Noir de Carlan’s bank card a few hours after the murder, in the town of Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), according to BFMTV. Located earlier this Tuesday in the Annecy region, before being spotted in Switzerland, the man who remains presumed innocent at this stage was also allegedly betrayed by his mobile phone, which he turned back on just before crossing the French-Swiss border.

Death by asphyxiation and gray areas

Missing on Friday, Philippine Le Noir de Carlan was found dead on Saturday in the Bois de Boulogne. The body of the third-year student in financial economics and engineering at Paris Dauphine University was discovered half-buried not far from the university canteen, where she had last been seen at 2 p.m. on September 20. What happened? Did Philippine have a bad encounter in this wood, which is regularly criticized for its insecurity? While the investigation continued on Tuesday, The Parisian revealed that the medical examiners in charge of the autopsy had concluded on Sunday that the death was due to asphyxiation.

However, the exact circumstances of Philippine’s death and the modus operandi of her potential assassin remain to be clarified. Because if strangulation is the first idea that comes to mind when we talk about death by asphyxiation, forensic doctors would be categorical: Philippine would not have been strangled. The absence of traces of tightening would even tend to rule out this hypothesis, notes The Parisianwho also claims that the rumors that Philippine was beaten are false.

To explain the asphyxiation, a source from the capital’s daily newspaper mentioned “compression”, without further details being provided for the time being. The “other examinations and expert assessments” to be carried out, mentioned on Sunday evening by the Paris prosecutor’s office, could be explained by this lack of clarity in the situation. But an expert immediately dismisses the fact that not everything can be determined by the forensic doctors and that we will have to wait for the results of the investigation work to know more.

Philippine’s body found partly buried

On Friday afternoon, the student had left the University around 2 p.m., after having lunch at the Crous. She was supposed to go to her parents’ house in Yvelines, in Montigny-le-Bretonneux. That was the last time she was seen. When her parents noticed that their daughter had not arrived, they tried to call her, without success. The young woman’s sister was the first to raise the alarm that same evening, at around 11 p.m., by going to the police station in the 16th arrondissement of the capital. A procedure for a worrying disappearance was then opened.

Concern quickly grew among her loved ones. Philippine was not in the habit of remaining unreachable for long. Her phone was last detected in the Bois de Boulogne. A search was then organized on Saturday to try to find the missing young woman. Nearly fifty people lent a hand to the family by going to the scene. Her phone was first found, before the discovery of the body, “about 20 meters from where the device was discovered, behind a mound,” said The Parisian.

At 4:50 p.m., Philippine’s body was discovered, partly buried, near a hiking trail. “The victim was formally identified late in the evening,” this Sunday, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to the Parisianparticularly thanks to the chain around her neck and the clothes she was wearing. An investigation has been opened for voluntary homicide and entrusted to the criminal brigade.

Man with pickaxe seen by witnesses

Now, a question must be answered: what was Philippine Le Noir de Carlan doing behind her University when she was supposed to go to her parents’ house in Yvelines? Indeed, the RER station on line C, which the student was supposed to take, is “on the other side”, explains The Parisian. “He could sometimes go for a walk there. [au bois de Boulogne ndlr.]just to get some air, to get some fresh air,” an acquaintance of the family told the daily on Tuesday.

According to information from the Figarowitnesses reportedly saw a man wearing a surgical mask and carrying a pickaxe heading towards the lake in the Bois de Boulogne. Did the individual, “brown, about 1.80m tall”, provide a lead for investigators? The geolocation of Philippine’s phone would have in any case guided the investigators’ searches, according to people close to the investigation to the continuous news channel. At the same time, the hearings continued in recent days, and the relatives who took part in the searches on Saturday were to be questioned in the premises of the criminal brigade.

Shock and incomprehension among Philippine’s entourage

On Monday, a minute of silence to pay tribute to Philippine was held in the university’s reception hall, an opportunity for those who knew her to remember the person she was. She was “a very intelligent, caring girl, very supportive of her classmates and above all full of life,” she told the Parisian a former teacher of the young woman. “She was brilliant and very hard-working. She was a class leader. I often told myself that she would surely have access to better masters than me,” confided to the Figaro a student. And another classmate added: “She was a very good student who loved reading. She was deeply kind. She was gentle and very discreet. She was not an extravagant person. She spent time with her family whenever she could.”

While a prayer vigil was organized Sunday evening in the Saint-Pierre-du-Lac church, which the victim and her family attended, a supervisor of Philippine in the scouts also remembered her in the columns of the Figaro. “She is very active, very kind and very proactive. She was always willing and available if there was a need to do anything or to motivate others,” he recalled.

This Monday, at the university, the insecurity in the neighboring Bois de Boulogne was unsurprisingly on everyone’s lips, but those who knew Philippine wondered above all who could have wanted to hurt her. “She was very hard-working, really nice, a little shy and reserved. I don’t know who could have wanted to hurt her,” confided to the Figaro a classmate. “I only knew her by sight, but she was a very nice girl who didn’t seem to have any problems,” she also noted to the Parisian an acquaintance.