A year after the discovery of the body of an unidentified woman, the gendarmes realized that the husband of the latter was in fact her murderer, and this, after her death. For months he had pretended that she had left him.
A chilling story. In June 2019 in Westdorpe, the Netherlands, a woman in her sixties, lifeless, is discovered by a walker. Naked, her feet bound, she shot in the back of the head like a “execution” according to the medical examiner, relayed by Marianne. For several months, the investigators will try to establish the identity of this woman whose no one reported the disappearance : search notice launched by the authorities, reward of 15,000 euros, distribution of the portrait of the sexagenarian, nothing helps. She is finally buried in an unmarked grave in the cemetery of Terneuzen. “Wherever you were born, whoever you are, you had to be loved”declares the mayor of the small town.
For several months, the “Botticelli” file is at a standstill. However, the death of a man will suddenly change the course of the investigation. On July 8, 2020, in Socx, near Dunkirk, Michel Hamilière, a 70-year-old man, was discovered dead at home from natural causes. While the case could have ended there, the investigators set off in search of Jocelyne, wife of the deceased. Problem: she can’t be found. According to the couple’s relatives, Michel Hamilière had told them that his wife left him after discovering that he was leading a double life, including having an illegitimate child. A version of the story that seems to have convinced those around the couple, while no one subsequently tried to get in touch with Jocelyne.
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The thesis of voluntary departure called into question
During this time, her husband undertakes the sale of his wife’s personal effects : furniture, jewelry, but also his car, a Skoda which looks like the one the gendarmes saw on the videos of the surveillance cameras near the place where the body of the mysterious sexagenarian was discovered lifeless a year earlier in the Nederlands. At the home of Michel Hamilière, the discovery Jocelyne’s identity papers calls into question the theory of voluntary departure, while the gendarmes also note that two cartridges are missing in a rifle.
It is finally in August 2021 the link is made, when the DNA of the anonymous woman and that of the missing wife are compared, while that of the husband is found on the bonds used to tie the wrists and ankles of the victim. The caliber of the bullet found in the head of the latter also corresponds to that of the rifle found in the couple’s house. A solved mystery which, in the absence of justice being done, allows Jocelyne Hamilière, born Decroix, to now have a burial in her name.