A few days before Christmas, fifteen months ago in Cagnac-les-Mines, the strange disappearance in the middle of the night of Delphine Jubillar, a 33-year-old mother, made the front page of the media. From the first days, this news item fascinated the French in the wake of the Daval affair, which ended, three weeks earlier, with the conviction of the husband to 25 years in prison at the assizes of Haute-Saône.
But unlike this case, in which the victim’s family did not hesitate to give interviews, the relatives of the nurse from Tarn, orphaned at 28, remained out of sight and the media whirlwind. .
Thus, his uncle and his aunt, who had never spoken in front of a camera, finally break the silence in a documentary broadcast Friday evening on RMC Story (1)signed Xavier Beneroso and Grégory Héraud, with Ronan Folgoas, great reporter for Le Parisien, the only journalist to have met the husband, Cédric Jubillar, and the lover of Delphine, with whom she wanted to start a new life.
“It was the opposite of Delphine”
It is on the counter of their kitchen that Didier and Elisabeth display their family photos, on which we recognize a young and very smiling Delphine, who is still called Aussaguel at the time. “She was lovely. She was a little girl, perhaps a little mischievous, but cute, kind. We had a strong bond together, as much on his side as on ours, it was reciprocal,” says the uncle. “She was like a girl to us,” adds the aunt.
They cling to these memories of a lost happiness, while all hope seems to have flown away. No trace of her since the night of December 15 to 16, 2020. No body. No clues. No confession. “We’re not going to see her again,” Elisabeth says. The scenario of a voluntary disappearance? Of a romantic escape? They no longer believe in it. “And yet, we would like to,” adds her spouse. They wonder about the relationship that Delphine had with Cédric, the father of her two children, Louis and Elyah: “We wonder why she met this boy. It was the opposite of Delphine”.
“He’s someoneendearingCedric »
Accident ? Bad encounter ? All of these leads were ruled out during the investigation. Suspicions are directed a little more towards the number one suspect every day. The one who, from the cell where he is detained, proclaims his innocence: the husband, a 34-year-old plasterer addicted to cannabis, who annoys as much as he intrigues. So, femicide that looks like a perfect crime, or miscarriage of justice? Everyone has their own opinion on this…
Séverine, his girlfriend whom he met four months before his detention, and placed in police custody for complicity in concealment of a corpse, is convinced of his innocence: “He never confided in me, he never entrusted anything. He would have told me anything, I would have swung directly. I wouldn’t have stayed with someone who would have hurt his wife,” she assures us in her raspy smoker’s voice. “He’s someoneendearing, Cedric. He has character, I have character… He’s a beautiful person, he was adorable, he’s a bon vivant, a hard worker… Anything that can attract a woman”. And to add: “If it is him, for someone that everyone takes for a moron, I find that he is strong in these cases, he is a world champion”.
“Delphine, it was her whole life”
His friend Cyril, for his part, evokes his attachment to his wife: “His driving force was Delphine. Delphine was her whole life. He had only one thing at heart, it was to be able to bring her everything she could want or desire. The thirty-something wanted to turn the page. The couple was in the process of divorce at the time of the facts, on the initiative of the young woman, which her spouse had difficulty accepting.
Finally, Ronan Folgoas, who has been following the investigations since the very first day and has made a book of them (2), obtained some secrets from Cédric, two months before his arrest: “As soon as I arrived on site, he was waiting for me on the terrace. He offered to show me his house. I felt he was quite proud to show it, and to show that it was in fact quite habitable”.
“He speaks of his wife in rather unflattering terms”
At the time, he did not know that he was being watched very closely by investigators. Besides, he will never mention the case. “What stands out is that he does not express a feeling of sadness, of loneliness for example, he has little affect, he speaks of his wife in rather unflattering terms. He tells me that she was not necessarily the perfect mother, mentioned by her friends, that her head was elsewhere long before her disappearance… ” During this meeting, he does not seem like a grieving husband but rather like a father who takes care of his children, his house and who works alone…
A lack of empathy which only amplifies his status as the presumed culprit. Indicted and imprisoned since June 18, 2021, Cédric Jubillar is still being held in detention. His lawyers made a new request for release on Tuesday, the prosecution opposes it. The investigating chamber of the court of appeal will render its decision next Tuesday.
(1) ”Jubillar affair: investigation and revelations into the disappearance of Delphine”, a 90-minute StudioFact documentary by Xavier Beneroso, Grégory Héraud, with Ronan Folgoas, Friday March 18 from 9:05 p.m. on RMC Story.
(2) ”The Jubillar mystery, investigation at the heart of a disappearance” by Ronan Folgoas, StudioFact editions, publication this Thursday, March 17, 311 pages, 19.90 euros.