Jean-Luc Lemaire case: a wife, a husband, two lovers and a horrible crime

On November 9, 2008, a horrific crime took place. That day, Jean-Luc Lemaire was killed in cold blood. His body was found buried in the Attichy sandpit a month later. Aged 47 at the time, this employee of the Compiègne racecourse had disappeared from his home in Longueil-Annel. After his disappearance was reported by his wife Isabelle, the investigators turned to a criminal trail since Jean-Luc Lemoine’s car was found charred in the forest of Compiègne. Quickly, the police discovered the double life of Isabelle, who had a relationship with two other men: Frédéric Ricaux, who had lived at the Lemaire’s home for two years and Alain Lanternier, whom she had met a few weeks earlier on a dating site. .

On November 28, 2008, the three are indicted for the murder of Jean-Luc Lemaire. The evening of his tragic disappearance, the two lovers of his wife would have pretexted an assistance to get him out of his home and kill him. At their trial, all accused each other of the murder and where the case was dubbed that of the “evil lovers”. After five days before the assizes, Isabelle Lemaire was sentenced to twelve years in prison for complicity in murder while Frédéric Ricaux was sentenced to eighteen years in prison for the assassination of Jean-Luc Lemaire. Alain Lanternier for his part was sentenced to five years in prison for failure to assist a person in danger and concealment of a corpse. In 2019, Isabelle Lemaire and Frédéric Ricaux had another appointment with the justice system.

“I have not forgiven but it remains my mother”

The man was then sentenced to 18 months in prison for violence and sexual assault on a minor while Isabelle Lemaire was given a one-year suspended prison sentence for not having denounced the ill-treatment suffered by three of her children. “Until I was 12, everything was going well, I didn’t see any particular problem… Until the arrival of Ricaux, my father’s assassin“, summed up Alexandre, one of the Lemaire sons, on the set of It starts today. Since his conviction, he no longer wants to speak to his mother: “We are trying to get answers but we have never had a single explanation, at the moment we are still trying and when we talk to her about it she cries. (…) I have not forgiven, I do not Don’t forget, but she’s still my mother”.