The verdict is in, thirty-six years later. Judge for the murder near Toulouse, of Martine Escadeillasa 24-year-old accounting secretary, Joel Bourgeon was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment by the Haute-Garonne Assize Court on Wednesday July 6, 2022, after four days of hearing.

Martine’s body was never found.

The young woman, no the body was never found, had disappeared on December 8, 1986, around 8:30 am. After dropping off her companion at the bus stop, she went back to their apartment in Ramonville-Saint-Agne (Upper Garonne). Blood had found in the stairwell, from the third floor, where the couple lived, to the cellar.

A neighbor perceived an argument on the landing around 8:45 a.m. between a man and a woman and her testimony had (mis)directed the investigators to an individual of “40-50 years old, balding on top, with graying hair”.

He confessed in police custody

Heard after nine days of investigation, Joël Bourgeon, a friend of the couple, had all platedher familyson work as a territorial employee at the Déodat high school in Séverac, where he had just been established, to settle in the Lyon region with a young 16 year old girla month and a half after the murder.

After two dismissals, justice had reopened the investigation, in 2016following receipt of a denunciation letter, by the Toulouse prosecutor. This letter designated Joël Bourgeon as the author of Martine’s murder. In a relationship with, father of two grown daughtersthe now fifty-year-old had been apprehended at his workplace in 2019, before quickly to confess in police custody.

He would have liked to reveal to her the infidelity of his companion

He had been explained to have come to Martine’s – from whom he was secretly in love -, that morning, for him reveal the infidelities of his companion, in the hope that she would then console herself in his arms. An argument had broken out. And the irreparable committed. But he never explained concretely where he got rid of the body, maybe “on the side of Pech-David”.

Joël Bourgeon then reconsidered his confession, a posture assumed before the Assize Court. The Advocate General had requested 20 years of imprisonment for his meeting. The convict now has ten days to appeal of the verdict.

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