Joël Bourgeon, who had confessed in 2019, before retracting, the murder of Martine Escadeillas, a young 24-year-old secretary who disappeared in 1986 in the suburbs of Toulouse, said he was still innocent on Friday, at the opening of his trial .

“Mr. President, I am innocent”limited himself to declaring before the Assize Court of Haute-Garonne the accused, light blue shirt and navy blue pants, under the gaze of his company and his two daughters, seated a few meters from him.

Confessions 32 years later

The 58-year-old accused has just been invited to intervene briefly, after the reminder to the court of the main points of the investigation which led to his trial, more than 35 years after Martine’s disappearance.

Two sisters, the brother, the brother-in-law and the former companion of Martine Escadeillas, who brought civil action, were also present in the large hall.

Joël Bourgeon was a friend of the missing young woman, who was never found, and of her companion.

Arrested in 2019, more than 32 years after the disappearance, he then confessed to having killed him, without giving details of the whereabouts of the body. But he retracted a week later.

For the investigators, however, the details given by Joël Bourgeon at the time of the confession could only be known to the murderer.

A testimony from a decisive neighbor

Initially, the testimony of a neighbor of the disappeared, claiming to have seen a man of around forty with a bald head squatting on a woman who was screaming, had won to put him out of the cause because he was not then 23 years old.

The statements of this neighbor will guide part of the investigations, before the investigators come to the conclusion, years later, that she had not been able to see the scene clearly enough.

1986, several other leads, including the possible involvement of serial killer Patrice Alègre, were deleted, then dropped.

Many years later, a letter from 2016 from an acquaintance of Martine will eventually lead to the arrest of Joël Bourgeon.