The suspect arrested on Saturday in connection with the disappearance of Lyhanna, an 11-year-old schoolgirl who had been missing in the Gers for three days, was indicted on Monday June 1 for kidnapping and placed in pre-trial detention while the search continues around the town of Fleurance.
“He was indicted for kidnapping, sequestration of a 15-year-old minor,” said Agen prosecutor Olivier Naboulet. “Presented to the investigating magistrate shortly before 8 p.m., the accused, aged 41, living in Gers not far from Fleurance, with a clean criminal record, did not wish to speak before the magistrate, nor answer any questions,” the prosecutor said in a press release.
In police custody since midday on Saturday, the suspect was transferred Monday afternoon to the criminal division of the Agen judicial court. According to Lyhanna’s father, his daughter and that of the suspect are friends and go to the same college and the two families have known each other for years.
The teenager was last seen on Friday around 3 p.m. in front of her college in Fleurance, a town of 6,000 inhabitants located 80 km west of Toulouse. The lawyer for the family of the missing woman explains that the only expectation of her loved ones “is to find Lyhanna”. “It’s the only thing we want, the rest is only incidental,” said François Roujou of Boubée who confirmed that Lyhanna was a “friend” of the suspect’s daughter and that the parents of the two schoolgirls knew each other.
On BFMTV, the council, which clarified that it had not yet had access to the investigation file, also indicated that Lyhanna’s parents had stopped “all contact” with the suspect, after having had “some doubts” about his actions during a “sleepover” at his home. On Sunday, Auch prosecutor Clémence Meyer announced that the man had declared having dropped Lyhanna off at the town’s swimming pool, statements “considered inconsistent and imprecise”.
Maintain the effort
In Fleurance and the surrounding area, search efforts to find Lyhanna were stepped up with the reinforcement of a squadron of mobile gendarmes, which brings to “170-180” the number of members of the police mobilized to “maximize our field coverage”, indicated late in the afternoon Colonel Philippe de Laforcade, commander of the Gers gendarmerie group.
“We are not part of a notion of fixed duration, we are doing the mission (…), maintaining the effort, that’s what we owe to the families, that’s what we owe to Lyhanna, to her family and to the population of Fleurance who came to help us,” underlined the officer. On Sunday, residents of the town took part in a search organized by the gendarmes, which made it possible to collect “a certain number of objects and clues”.
On the ground, investigators are combing the surroundings of Fleurance: a river and lakes were surveyed by divers, dogs trained to search for people, drones and a helicopter were also deployed by the gendarmerie which described “maximum commitment”.
On Monday, searches were focused on woods south of the town as well as other surrounding areas. Colonel de Laforcade asks the population “not to undertake collective research independently” but has not ruled out “under the authority of the Agen public prosecutor, relaunching citizen research”.
A meeting of around forty mayors and deputies from the community of communes of Gers Lomagne, of which Fleurance is a part, took place Monday evening on site to facilitate “overall cohesion” and the dissemination of information, explained Mayor Gregory Bobbato, with elected officials present also indicating that they wished to show their solidarity.
“Fleurantains are in shock at the announcement,” said Gregory Bobbato, emphasizing the role of elected officials as an interface between law enforcement and the population. “We must allow the investigation to move forward without hindering it, especially through personal initiatives,” he insisted.
