INFO THE DEPECHE. Murder of Martine Escadeillas in 1986 near Toulouse: new request for the release of the accused
Returned to the Assize Court at the end of October for the murder of Martine Escadeillas in December 1986 in Ramonville, Joël Bourgeon has just demanded his release before the investigating chamber of the Toulouse Court of Appeal. Decision in a week.
“I have no intention of running away, simply to regain the family balance that has been undermined for three years…” Joël Bourgeon, 58, spoke last on Tuesday January 18, 2022 in front of the Chamber of the instruction of Toulouse. Arrested in January 2019, this former trainer was returned to the Haute-Garonne Assize Court at the end of October for the murder of Martine Escadeillas, a young woman who mysteriously disappeared on December 8, 1986 from her home in Ramonville. Arrested 32 years after the disappearance of Martine Escadeillas, Joël Bourgeon, friend of the victim, admitted to violence while in police custody before going back on his statements and then denying any involvement in the disappearance of the young woman whose body is n was never found.
An element that weighs in this file, even 35 years later. “It’s not our fault if the investigation was so long, that the investigation had to be reopened three times and that the only real witness in this case exonerates us”, annoys Me Eric Mouton, defender of the accused with Me Jean-Baptiste de Boyer Montaigut. The two lawyers filed this new request for release, as they have done many times, each time without success, since the implicating of their client.
Where is the body?
The public prosecutor’s office opposes the request, considering that the risks of the accused absconding on the eve of his trial – it is not yet canceled but should take place in the fall – cannot be disadvantaged and are ” indisputable”, according to the general counsel Chantal Furmigier. Questions about where the body was hidden also come back like a boomerang. “He alone knows where he is”, affirms the Advocate General when Me Frédéric David, the counsel for the family of Martine Escadeillas, evokes on the subject “the cynicism” of the accused “who affirmed in police custody: I don’t know what I did with it…”
The decision will be made in a week, on Tuesday, January 25.