On the night of October 27 to 28, 2017, Alexia Fouillot, wife Daval, was murdered by her husband, Jonathann Daval. Update on this widely publicized French case.
This is one of the most publicized French news items of recent years. On October 30, 2017, the body of Alexia Daval, wife of Fouillot, was discovered charred in a wood in Esmoulins, Haute-Saône. The beginning of a case as sordid as it is overwhelming, which will lead to the arrest of her husband, Jonathann Daval, on January 29, 2018.
Summary of the Daval case
On October 28, 2017, Jonathann Daval, 33, reported the disappearance of his 29-year-old wife Alexia. He explains that he saw her for the last time around 9 a.m., when she left their marital home in Gray-la-Ville (Haute-Saône) to go “Jogging“. He himself went to his place of work around 10.45 a.m., before joining Grégory Gay, Alexia’s brother-in-law, to retrace his wife’s usual running route. Alexia being nowhere to be found, the two men are passed through the emergency room before going to the gendarmerie around 12:30 p.m.
The research launched, Alexia’s body was found charred on October 30, 2017 in a wood in Esmoulins, near Gray-la-Ville. The autopsy reveals that the young woman was beaten and strangled with her bare hands.
At first, the gendarmes of the research section of Besançon consider all the tracks. Did Alexia have a bad encounter? Did she have a lover, with whom things could have degenerated? One thing is certain, his disappearance leaves a huge void in his community. On November 5, a silent march in his homage brings together more than 8,000 people. Her husband, Jonathann Daval, appears at the head of the procession with his in-laws, Isabelle and Jean-Pierre Fouillot. In tears, supported by Alexia’s father, he declares: “Alexia (…) was my first supporter, my oxygen, the force that pushed me to surpass myself. (…) The strength of our couple made us surpass ourselves in our outings and in our life together. I will miss this fullness terribly.”
But while in front of all of France, Jonathann Daval mourns the woman he loved so much, the investigators do not believe in his tears and suspect him of being involved in the death of his wife. Indeed, the analysis of Alexia’s phone reveals the existence of conflicts in the couple, in particular because of their inability to conceive. Alexia, who held her husband responsible for their infertility, exerted constant pressure and humiliation on him. “You’re powerless, you don’t get hard, you’re shit“, she would have written to him one day. In addition, a neighbor of the Daval couple reveals to the police that he saw Jonathann’s professional vehicle leave the home on the night of October 27 to 28, 2017, just hours before Alexia was reported missing. The car’s tires are then compared to the tracks taken near where Alexia’s body was found. They match.
On January 29, 2018, three months after Alexia’s death, Jonathann Daval was taken into custody. After thirty hours of interrogation, he confesses to having killed his wife “by accident” following an argument and is indicted for “murder of spouse”.
But the matter does not end there. In October 2018, Jonathann Daval returns to his version. He denies any involvement in the death of his wife and evokes a “family conspiracy”. Yet the evidence against him continues to pile up. An aerosol can without a cap was discovered in the couple’s house, while the cap was found a few steps from where Alexia’s charred body was. Moreover, only Daval’s DNA is found on the victim’s body. The main interested party nevertheless continues to deny, until on December 7, 2018, a confrontation with his mother-in-law succeeds in making him crack.
On June 17, 2019, during a reenactment, Jonathann Daval finally confessed to the crime and gave the details. He explains that he hit his wife five times before strangling her for 4 minutes.
Judgment of Jonathann Daval
On November 21, 2020, Jonathann Daval was found guilty of the murder of his wife and was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment, with a half security period.
Did Alexia Daval have a lover?
No, Alexia Daval had no lover. In an interview given to New Detective, Me Randall Schwerdorffer, Jonathann Daval’s lawyer, explained that he had long sought to prove the existence of a lover to “justify” the actions of his client. Nevertheless, it has been proven that the young woman had no extramarital relationship. “There was no lover, no mistress, nothing. And believe me we looked there…”, said the magistrate.
Who was Alexia Daval?
Born February 18, 1988 in Gray (Haute-Saône), Alexia Fouillot, wife Daval, is the second daughter of Isabelle and Jean-Pierre Fouillot. A graduate in education, she subsequently obtained a position as a bank employee at Crédit Mutuel. Very athletic, she swam and had a great passion for running, a passion she shared with her husband.
During the white march on November 5, 2017, Stéphanie, Alexia’s older sister, described the latter as a “Pretty independent and brilliant young woman, with a strong character“.
What becomes of Jonathann Daval?
Incarcerated since January 30, 2018, the day of his indictment, Jonathann Daval is serving his sentence in the Dijon remand center.
According to his lawyer, Randall Schwerdorffer, Jonathann Daval would have suffered a “phenomenal weight loss” since the beginning of his incarceration. “At the prison, there were a lot of analyses. No one medically understood what was going on“, said the magistrate in October 2021.
What happens to the parents of Alexia Daval?
Inconsolable, the parents of Alexia Daval, Isabelle and Jean-Pierre Fouillot, somehow continue their lives. They recently sold the PMU they owned, so they could turn the page and spoil “those who remain”, including their eldest daughter, Stephanie, and their grandchildren.
Thursday October 28, 2021, four years to the day after the death of their daughter, Isabelle and Jean-Pierre Fouillot published Alexia, our daughter, a book looking back at how they experienced the affair that destroyed their lives.
How did Jonathann Daval and Alexia Fouillot meet?
Jonathann Daval and Alexia Fouillot met in 2004, when they were 21 and 16 respectively. Although Alexia was still in high school, she quickly fell in love with the young man and agreed to marry him eleven years later on July 18, 2015.
“Le Mystère Daval”, a TF1 TV movie on the Daval affair
In December 2021, TF1 announced that it had launched the production of a TV movie centered on the Daval affair. The role of the victim, Alexia, will be provided by Maud Baecker, who appeared in the series tomorrow belongs to us, while Jonathann Daval will be played by Liam Baty, also seen in tomorrow belongs to us. The roles of Isabelle and Jean-Pierre Fouillot were entrusted to Michèle Bernier and Jérôme Anger.
“Saturday, October 28, 2017, 12:10 p.m. Two men disembark, distraught, at the Gray police station. Jonathann Daval, accompanied by his brother-in-law, reports the disappearance of his wife, Alexia. This one went for a jog in the morning and didn’t come back“, says the official synopsis of the telefilm.What happened to him ? For 3 months, the gendarmes will carry out a relentless, exemplary investigation, as discreetly as possible, to gather evidence, then make confess the one they are convinced does not tell everything: Jonathann.”
Even before its release, the TV movie inspired by the Daval affair is far from unanimous. On the Web, many Internet users criticize TF1’s financial incentives and consider the project too “voyeuristic”. “Can we go further to make ratings and money? Disgusting !!!“, protested a user of Twitter. “Hyper uncomfortable in front of the trailer for ‘The Daval Affair’, and yet I love the actors. Too early, too voyeuristic”, says another.”
Already available on the SALTO VOD platform, “The Daval Mystery” will soon be broadcast on TF1.