The three mothers of the “disappeared from Perpignan” united in search of the culprit, with Marie-Jo as spokesperson. While the murderer of two of them has been sentenced, Marie-Jo is still waiting…
They were young, pretty, cheerful, with the same southern physique. On September 24, 1995, Tatiana Andujar, 17, the daughter of Marie-Jo Garcia, disappeared. In December 1997, Mokhtaria Chaïb, 19, was found dead, raped, and her sexual organs mutilated. In June 1998, Marie-Hélène Gonzalez, 22, was found six months later with the same “signature”. All in the Perpignan station area. “The police were tracking a serial killer, with a doubt for Tatiana, for lack of a body.
I thought for a long time that she was alive, and then…”, recalls Marie-Jo, 63, without finishing her sentence. Two false leads make the mothers of the disappeared vibrate in unison when a “guilty ideal” was arrested in 1998. He was released after nine months in prison when the fourth tragedy occurred! Fatima Idrahou, 23, was found dead in February 2001, strangled after being raped. Another one! The whole town is in shock But the culprit is quickly arrested thanks to a witness: Marc Delpech, a well-integrated thirty-something, a drinks representative, who couldn’t stand Fatima refusing his advances!
Marie-Jo and her husband turned into investigators but faced a wall of silence
Exonerated in the crimes of Mokhtaria and Marie-Hélène, he is heard for the disappearance of Tatiana. “What troubled the investigators is that he had a novel called Tatyana recounting his abduction, and press clippings from the time. But for lack of confessions and clues, he was sentenced to thirty years in prison, including twenty years of security, for Fatima, but not for Tatiana, disappearance for which he was not indicted. Me, I’m still troubled… “, admits Marie-Jo. In the summer of 1995, Tatiana worked at an ice cream parlor in Port Leucate near Narbonne. Her parents find that she has changed.
During the investigation into her disappearance, they even discover that she was skipping her final year course. But to see who? The day of her disappearance, she was returning from a weekend with new friends. Before her departure, she had hidden to telephone from the landline, the cell phone did not exist. And when she gets off the train, according to the last witness to have seen her, she calls from a cabin, then waits. Who is his mysterious correspondent? Flirting ? A suitor? Her new girlfriends met on the coast necessarily know something. Marie-Jo and her husband, transformed into investigators, find them… But they face a wall of silence. “At this age, we fear the police, but it’s not too late,” says Marie-Jo.
“Parents from the four corners of France faced with a cold case form like a big family”
Each mother of the disappeared from Perpignan has her scenario, sometimes common. All remain united by the ordeal, and it lasts for years… “Parents from the four corners of France confronted with a cold case form like a big family which dialogues in demonstrations, in associations, in television programs or now on social networks, says Marie-Jo. We would have done without it of course, but we get attached.
However, it was in October 2014 that the destinies of the mothers of Perpignan separated. The scientific police manage to link a piece of DNA found on a shoe from Mokhtaria to Jacques Rançon, in his fifties, with a full criminal record, already convicted of rape and domestic violence. He also confessed, in June 2015, to the murder of Marie-Hélène Gonzalez. But on the date of Tatiana’s disappearance, he was in prison in the north of France… It is a hope that is shattered once again for Marie-Jo, who nevertheless remains united. “I was relieved for the families, I was by their side at the trial, in March 2018, to support them, especially Marie-Hélène’s mother with whom I became friends. It was so horrible that I lost 10kg…”
“One day, someone has to speak, or at worst, his found body speaks”
Ransom is sentenced to life, then, on June 12, 2021, to thirty years of criminal imprisonment, accompanied by a security period of twenty years, for the crime and the rape, in the Somme, of Isabelle Mesnage, 20 years old, in… 1986! Other aggressions are prescribed. “I didn’t have the strength to follow this trial, blows Marie-Jo. They destroy entire families!” Since then, her relationship has exploded. His sons, Alex, 5 years old at the time, a sound engineer, wrote a tribute song to his sister in Spanish. Julien, 11 years old at the time, went to boarding school to escape “a zombie mom and a father obsessed with the truth”. Having become a choreographer, he projects a memorial show.
As for Marc, 15 years old at the time, still in pain, he had the first name Tatiana tattooed on his arm… “Tatiana has her place intact in our memories (on Facebook, Tatiana, we don’t forget you not). One day, someone has to speak, or at worst, that his found body speaks. My fear is to die before”, slips in a breath this courageous mother …