Europe 1 with AFP
The body of a man was found in a disused house on Wednesday on the banks of the Doubs. It would be a Serbian national who has disappeared since the end of December in Besançon and who had left his home across the Rhine on December 22, in possession of a large sum of money, to buy a vehicle.
The body of a Serbian national who has been missing since the end of December in Besançon was probably discovered last Wednesday in a disused house on the banks of the Doubs, an autopsy confirming the thesis of a homicide, the prosecution said on Tuesday. “Last Wednesday a body was found in a disused house, an old mill on the banks of the Doubs”, said the public prosecutor of Besançon, Etienne Manteaux, confirming information from the daily The Republican East.
“The autopsy showed that the person had suffered severe blows to the skull which certainly explained the death. We do not yet have genetic confirmation that it is the missing person, but the tattoos leave little doubt that “It is the Serbian national, residing in Germany, who has been missing since December 23,” continued the prosecutor.
Traces of missing man’s blood found
According to relatives who had reported his disappearance on December 26, he had left his home across the Rhine on December 22, in possession of a large sum of money, to buy a vehicle in the Franche-Comté city. The man had made the trip with his own car, found by the police in Besançon, in the Planoise district. Traces of the missing person’s blood had been discovered “in significant quantities” in the trunk, Etienne Manteaux explained during a press briefing at the end of January.
A European arrest warrant was issued against a Serb who resided for a few days in Besançon at the end of December, the last person to have been seen with the victim. Two women, also of Serbian origin, had been imprisoned after having been in contact with the fugitive, suspected of having cleaned the apartment he had occupied in Besançon. Indicted for “modifying a crime scene” and “non-denunciation of a crime”, they have since been released, without having provided further information to the investigators.