It is one of the oldest Case closed of France. A case with twists and turns on which the investigators have stubborn pendant three decades before a suspect and a troubling material item are delivered on a silver platter.

Blood on the stairs, in the cellar, on the elevator button…

Monday, December 8, 1986, at Ramonville-Saint-Agne (Haute-Garonne), near Toulouse, Martine Escadeillasa secretary of 24 years makes a detour through her apartment after dropping off her boyfriend at the bus stop. It’s 8:15 a.m. In a quarter of an hour, the young woman evaporates. To never repair again.

Of the traces of blood are found in the cage ofstairson the buttonelevatorright into the Cave. A young man who secretly harbored romantic feelings for the missing woman is interviewed by the gendarmes. But in the absence of more convincing elements, he was released. Especially since a testimony seems to clear customs.

Amazing twist

A neighbor describes a man she met in the stairwell, in the time slot of Martine’s disappearance, that is 8:15 to 8:30. She portrays “a stocky manalmost bald, between 40 and 50 years old. A very distant portrait of the young man that the investigators questioned.

The years pass, the tracks dwindle, become rare, dry up body and soul. In 2008, the instruction end in a dismissal. Until this amazing twist. In 2016, the public prosecutor of Toulouse received a disturbing letter. It comes from a friend of Martine. She designates “the transient lover” as the murderer. He is named Joel Bourgeon.

Jealousy and frustration for mobile?

Thirty-three years after the events, this 56 year old carpenter became family father is arrested by the SR of Toulouse. Jealousy and frustration, the motives of this crime without a corpse? The suspect is in custody. On January 25, 2019, the Toulouse prosecutor, Dominique Alzeari explained during a press conference:

“This famous man [Martine Escadeillas] and went to her home on the day of the incident. A discussion took place on the third floor of the residence. A violent dispute pitted her against the victim. He abused her. She tried to flee. He chased her. And he explained that the young woman died at the bottom of the stairs…”

Indicted for “intentional homicide” and remanded in custody, the suspect recanted. He did not make a detailed confession. And Martine’s body was never found.

Martine’s watch?

But one strange jewel exhumed by the gendarmes seems to corroborate the letter of denunciation and the first confessions of the suspect. This ” small watch with a metal bracelet, adorned with bars and small petrol blue semi-precious stones” had been offered to one of his conquests by Joël Bourgeon, shortly after leaving Toulouse, in 1987.

This watch has been formally recognized by Martine’s sisteras she revealed a few months ago, to our colleagues at Parisian :

“We bought this watch [ensemble] just over three weeks before his disappearance. We flew to Pas-de-la-Case (Andorra), Martine had fallen in love with it. For me, there is no doubt: the watch that was presented to me corresponds to the one she was wearing, it jumped out at me. I hope [que le suspect] will tell us the truth and what he did with the body of [ma sœur].”

Without corpse, without DNA and without witness ocular, but with a denunciation, retracted confessions and a material element, justice is preparing to judge this 36-year-old file. as manyyears of pain for the family of the victim who hopes, finally, to know the truth about Martine’s disappearance.

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