Disappearance of Sihem, 18, in the Gard: first major twist in the case

What happened to Sihem? The 18-year-old young woman disappeared on the night of Wednesday January 25 to Thursday January 26 in La Grande Combe, in the Gard. “She came out at midnight from her grandmother’s house with whom she lives after a first return at 10:30 p.m. (…) We have not heard from since”, explained a cousin of the teenager. Sihem indeed left her grandmother’s home shortly before midnight. “She heard the door close. Then nothing. Fatima is really in her head. My daughter did not take her identity papers or her purse. Just his iPhone 13“, confided the dad of the teenager to the Parisian. A call for witnesses for worrying disappearance was quickly broadcast by the police in an attempt to find Sihem. And this Tuesday, January 31, a first twist took place.

According to Le Parisien indeed, a man was arrested by the gendarmes of the research section of Nîmes. It would be a man in his forties, known to the police. Mahfoud H was “sentenced to 12 years in prison, with two other accomplices, for a series of organized gang robberies and armed robberies in the Alès region in 2012”. According to Le Parisien always, the kept in sight “was due to appear this Wednesday, February 1 before the Assize Court of Gard for a home confinement case dating back to 2011”. According to information from Midi-Libre, that man “would be the last to have been in contact with Sihem who would have gotten into his car”. Since the arrest of the suspect, a major operation has been carried out in the village not far from Alès where several houses have been searched.

The heartbreaking appeal of Sihem’s mother

Sunday, January 29, the public prosecutor of Alès opened an investigation for kidnapping and kidnapping. “Obviously, the investigators have sufficient evidence to believe that Sihem did not disappear of his own free will. Tonight (this Monday, January 30), to my knowledge, there was still no police custody, explained the lawyer of the family of Sihem, Me Sara Benlefki. Each passing moment takes us a little further from the truth and this causes terrible suffering for parents and loved ones. We hope for a happy ending.” With France 3, Sihem’s mother made a desperate appeal: “I forgive, I forgive, that they return my daughter to me. That my daughter comes home alive, that’s all. I am ready to forgive but that they return my daughter to me.”