In her book Me, mother of Jonathann, published this November 17, 2022 by Michalon editions, Martine Henry, the mother of Jonathann Daval, recounts the daily life of her son behind bars.
This is one of the most famous news stories in France. On October 28, 2017, Jonathann Daval, 33, reports the disappearance of his wife Alexiawent for a jog in Gray-la-Ville in the wee hours of the morning. Two days later, the half-charred body of the young woman was discovered in a wood near the marital home. Devastated, Jonathann publicly mourns his wife’s death, but police suspicion quickly turns on him. On January 30, 2018, after three months of lying, the young Haut-Saônois confessed to having killed his wife following an argument of rare violence.
Sentenced to 25 years of criminal imprisonment on November 21, 2020, Jonathann Daval is serving his sentence today at the central house of Ensisheim, in the Bas-Rhin. He leads a waveless existence there, far from the tumult caused by his crime in 2017. In his book Me, mum of Jonathannpublished on November 17, 2022 by Michalon editions, his mother, Martine Henry, gives details of his life in detention. She evokes his working dayshis friendships with his fellow inmates, but also the difficulties he has to face.
“In prison, I saw that it was coming back”
According to his mother, Jonathann would face health problems. He would suffer in particular from the aggravation of his scoliosis which appeared in adolescence. “In prison, I saw that it was coming back; Jonathann has a little bump”writes the mother of the detainee. Jonathann has suffered from this scoliosis since the age of 14, as Martine Henry recalls in her book: “He went to college in Gray, the same one Alexia attended a little later. This is where things got more complicated for him, with adolescence. He had a humped back, a big scoliosis. Around the age of 14, he had to put on a corset, he had to wear it day and night. It was very difficult for him. Inevitably, at that age, he was the target of ridicule. Poor guy, he had to keep it for two years. I heard him more than once say he was tired of putting it on.”
This is not the first time that Jonathann Daval’s state of health has been talked about. In early 2018, following his placement in pre-trial detention, the murderer of Alexia Daval had worried the medical profession while losing several tens of kilos. “In fact, he was somatizing. That is to say, he never had any pathology. But at one point, no matter how much he ate, the weight loss was dizzying as if he was suffering from cancer. described his lawyer, Randall Schwerdorffer, in his book I wanted her to shut up – The love tragedy of Alexia and Jonathann Daval.