Helplessness and uncertainty, two of the worst human feelings that mingle among Lina’s loved ones and the investigators in charge of the case of her disappearance. Since September 23, 2023, just a few minutes after the alert given by the mother of the 15-year-old teenager, the gendarmes have taken stock of the seriousness of the situation. That day, Lina mysteriously vanishes on the way between her home in Plaine and the Saint-Blaise-la-Roche station, where her friend is waiting for her with a surprise. The young girl must take a train towards Strasbourg, to join her boyfriend Tao. It was when he didn’t see her arrive that he contacted Fanny Groll, Lina’s mother, to express his concern.
Immediately, a search was launched, and tracking dogs were mobilized to retrace the route taken on foot by the missing teenager. But they suddenly lose track of him on the side of the road. “The dog handler was formal, at this point, Lina’s feet no longer touch the ground”explains his mother in front of the France 2 cameras, in the report broadcast on March 2, 2024 in the show 1:15 p.m., Saturday.
“There are absolutely no traces” on the section of road where Lina disappeared
The first explanation that comes to mind of the Schirmeck gendarmes is the hypothesis of a disguised accident. But this was quickly dismissed. “On the entire stretch of road where Lina is believed to have disappeared, there is absolutely no trace: no braking marks, no broken glass…”specifies Hervé Miclo, journalist for the local daily Latest News from Alsace, which covered the disappearance of the teenager from day one, more than five months ago. And to add: “No trace of an accident, because It was the first thing we could think of. Someone who knocks down a young girl on the road, who panics and carries the person away. But there is no trace.” From now on, for the investigators of the Strasbourg research section, as for Lina’s mother, there is no longer any doubt: the young girl got into a vehicle, willingly or by force. “If it’s someone she knows, then she will not have been suspicious. If it was a chance encounter, it could have been by force”analyzes Fanny Groll.
According to the testimony of a neighbor, who claims to have seen Lina in a car just a few minutes after the time of her disappearance, it is very likely that the teenager knew her kidnapper. “She pointed at me, then she said hello to me while smilingRobert remembers. I saw clearly that it was Lina, she was dressed in white, her hair slightly swept back, and then smiling, really.” If the octogenarian was unable to identify the driver, whom he describes as a young bearded man in his twenties, this ease of Lina at his side suggests that she knew him. As part of the judicial investigation opened for “kidnapping and sequestration” – which in fact portends a criminal act and not an accident – investigators are also looking for a 20-year-old man driving a gray Renault Clio , who allegedly approached several schoolgirls in the weeks preceding the young girl’s disappearance.