In the middle of summer 2011, a very particular incident had shaken France: a father living in the North had been found dead in his fireworks shop. A look back at an extraordinary affair against the backdrop of a love triangle.
The least that can be said is that the French police had all the trouble in the world to elucidate this strange news story. We are in 2011 and summer is in full swing in the small town of Louvroil, located in the North of France. June 1, a fire breaks out in a fireworks shop called “All fires, all parties”, located in the middle of the departmental road D602. Around 10 a.m., a man named Tolga Tanriverdi, who runs a garage not far from here, is intrigued by a burning smell. He alerts the fire department.
Less than fifteen minutes later, the latter are on the spot and attack the blaze. Another neighbor warns them that two people would be inside the shop : the manager, a certain Jean Moritz, as well as the youngest of his children, Jessie Moritz, 15 years old. The latter quickly got out of bed, located on the floor of the shop, in the apartment he shares with his father. While the firefighters are proud to have put out the fire before it reached the place where the fireworks are stored, they walk around the building, until they stop dead: the body of Jean Moritz, 55, was found almost entirely charred.
An incredible investigation almost impossible to elucidate
Inevitably, the news spread within this small village in the North of France. The inhabitants are bewildered: Jean Moritz is someone known and appreciated by all. A renowned fireworks artist, the 50-year-old is behind all the fireworks in the local towns. A few days later, the police think they have found the reason for this fire: a suicide, because the door of the store was locked. However, Jean Moritz was not at all depressed and used to walk around with a smile on his face. So, something is wrong. But what ?
A week after the tragedy, June 7, 2011, the autopsy of the body gives its verdict: Jean Moritz has the upper body totally burned, in the 4th degree, but that’s not all. The man is punched in the face… before his death. Which opens the door to possibilities: the fire was lit in order to remove any suspicious traces, because it was started after the death of the fifty-year-old. A question then arises: who could have killed this artificer who seemed to have no problem with anyone?
A settling of scores after a love triangle
For ten years, the investigators of the judicial police of Lille break their teeth. No suspect is found in the Jean Moritz case, and the case is about to be closed. It must be said that the thesis of the villainous motive, that of a commercial dispute with one of its competitors, or that of the settlement of family accounts are discarded. Nothing sticks. So, investigators turn to something else entirely: et if there was a love rivalry behind this murder? And that’s good, a person is in their sights, a certain Youssef T.
Aged about forty, this man is indicted for murder, before being remanded in custody for having repeatedly violated the conditions of his judicial review. But a problem persists: this track is simply an intimate conviction of the police. “We have no fingerprints or DNA in this case”, said a spokesman for the police. Here is the story: Jean Moritz found himself in the heart of a love triangle after having had relations with the mother of Youssef T’s children. Threats followed, which turned into a tragedy by ending in a settling of accounts bloodthirsty on the morning of June 1, 2011. A story finally settled by justice, but it will have taken eleven long years.