Romain C., the main suspect in the death of Vanessa, was indicted this Sunday, November 20 before recognizing the sexual motive of his acting out. The 31-year-old man was indicted for “abduction and forcible confinement” and “rape and murder of a 15-year-old minor”.
This is the news item that agitated France this weekend. Vanessa, a 14-year-old girl, was kidnapped, raped and killed this Friday, November 18 in Tonneins, a small town in Lot-et-Garonne, while she was returning home after her PE course at the middle School. The police quickly found a suspect, a certain Romain C., 31 years old. Extended for 24 hours this Saturday evening by the Agen prosecutor’s office, his police custody ended this Sunday at the end of the afternoon and a judicial investigation was opened. After having been heard by the examining magistrate, Romain C. was indicted for “kidnapping and forcible confinement” and “rape and murder of a 15-year-old minor”. Before being imprisoned in stride.
During his arrest, Romain C. directly confessed his crime. “I know why you are here”, he directly said to the gendarmes who came to pick him up at his home in Marmande this Friday evening, four hours after the report of the disappearance of the teenager. The man was quickly identified because of his vehicle. From his first hearings, he confessed to having kidnapped, raped and strangled the young girl before indicating the place where he had hidden her body, an uninhabited house in Birac-sur-Trec. Vanessa’s body was found thanks to her clear indications.
The profile of Romain C. was established by the police
Cooperative during his police custody despite a coldness and without any emotion, Romain C. indicated “not knowing the little girl, not having carried out a scouting and that the motivation for her actions was of a sexual nature”. As for his acting out, he explained that he acted “by impulse”. The public prosecutor announced “a behavior close to that of a predator”. As a reminder, Romain C. had already been convicted of sexual assault on minors in 2016, when he was 15 years old.
Here is the sequence of events: after spending part of the morning in Tonneins in his vehicle smoking cannabis near the college, Romain C. spotted Vanessa walking down the street before forcibly abducting her. More confused on his journey then, the man says he parked “in a place out of sight” to rape his victim. According to his statements, he would have taken the decision to “kill her by strangling her” to hide this crime.
The investigators logically established his profile. Not desocialized, Romain C. is a temporary worker and has been living as a couple for a year. He had just had a baby. On his social networks, he presents himself as an employee of spaces towards in an association located in Bègles. Romain C.’s home was searched and his vehicle seized. Investigators from the research section of Bordeaux (Gironde) and the research brigade of Marmande seek in particular to reconstruct his journey to specify the exact place of his passages to the act. The autopsy of the victim, whose body was transported to the medico-legal institute of Bordeaux, must be carried out this beginning of the week.