“He said hello to me with a big smile”: was the suspect in the murder of little Vanesa on the hunt?

What really happened on November 18, 2022? Four days after the death of Vanesa, 14, kidnapped at the exit of her college in Tonneins, in Lot-et-Garonne, the hours which preceded the crime begin to take shape. Questioned by our colleagues from BFMTV, a 17-year-old girl claims to have come across the main suspect, Romain C., 31 years olda few hours before he goes after Vanesa. “I was walking and I saw this man there, he started to slow down and he waved to me with a big smile”, says the teenager, upset by this meeting which could have gone very badly. “He was driving slowly, he was too weird and I was scared at the time.”

When meeting the suspect, Tahlia was on the phone with her mother. “I said to him, ‘Mom, someone honked at me and was too weird. He gave me a smile and he was going in slow motion'”. Cautious, the mother of the teenager then advised her to flee. “I told him: take precautions, be careful, go take refuge with your girlfriend, because you never know who it could be.“, she remembers on BFMTV.

A premeditated act?

Without knowing it, Tahlia may have escaped the worst. A few hours after attempting an approach with her, Romain C., who therefore seemed on the hunt, set his sights on another victim. According to his own confession, made on the evening of Friday November 18, he kidnapped Vanesa at the exit of the Germillac college in Tonneins, making her “break into his vehicle“. He then raped and strangled her, before leaving her body in an uninhabited house in Birac-sur-Trec, not far from Tonneins. Confounded by CCTV cameras, Romain C. was indicted for kidnapping, forcible confinement, rape and murder of a minor. The investigation will have to determine whether or not his act was premeditated.