A 14-year-old girl from Ardèche found herself kidnapped by two men in Marseille. She managed to alert the police thanks to Snapchat, who were then able to locate her.
As reported by France 3 regions, it was around 5 a.m. when this Friday, January 14, the young teenager warned her mother “in panic”. The victim, who had no idea where she was, had been raped, beaten, kidnapped and certainly drugged. She then took advantage that her kidnappers were asleep, to contact her parents, also domiciled in Ardèche, using her cell phone.
Alerted in the process by the latter, the police then came into contact with the teenager. If at first, it was impossible for the police to locate the young girl, this obstacle was then solved thanks to the clever idea of an assistant police officer. The latter proposed to use the social network Snapchat, an application widely used by the younger generation, which has a tracking system.
Thus, thanks to Snapchat, the police were able to determine that the victim was in a building in the 15th arrondissement of Marseille, at La Cabucelle, located between Boulevard Marie-Joseph and rue Alexandre Meradou, more precisely.
Exchanges by text
Once there, the police were again faced with another problem. She had to find in which apartment and on which floor exactly the girl was. And she had preferred to stay still and not take the risk of waking up her attackers. It was therefore by text that she continued to exchange with the assistant police officer.
After answering “yes” to the agents, when they found themselves on the landing of the apartment then in front of the exact door, the latter entered and then discovered two men, in addition to the young victim. One 27 years old and the other 64 years old. The latter tried to erase elements from his phone before being arrested by Bac teams.
As for the young victim, she was taken care of and hospitalized. Rudy Manna, the departmental secretary of the Alliance Police union in the Bouches-du-Rhône, believes that “if the assistant police officer had not had the idea of locating her thanks to Snapchat, the police might not have been able to to find her. Who knows what could have happened to him?