In the Bouches-du-Rhône, in July 2021, a 13-year-old teenager was murdered by a mentally unstable man, who had just been released from a psychiatric hospital. His mother asks for an explanation on this medical decision which cost the life of her son.
Last July, in Tarascon, Karine experienced a terrible tragedy: Romain, her 13-year-old son, was beheaded by an unbalanced man just released from a psychiatric hospital. With our colleagues from BFM TV, on January 29, 2022, she confided in her anger and his misunderstanding of the medical decision who cost the life of his child: “The killer had been mentally ill for years. The mayor of Tarascon did everything for him to be interned, he was hospitalized in psychiatry at the Arles hospital and three days later a famous psychiatrist said he was fit to resume his normal life outside.
The drama took place on a weekend when Karine was absent. Romain had stayed at home with friends, but during the night from Friday to Saturday, he disappeared. The mother, contacted by the teenager’s best friend, then thought that her son “had run away”. But when he returned on Sunday, Romain had still not given any sign of life. The same evening, he was told the unthinkable. “My neighbor told me, I went to the gentleman’s house to clean up and I discovered your son’s body in the bathroom”she says on BFM TV.
Post-mortem mutilations, voodoo dolls and Molotov cocktails
Karine went there and discovered a scene of horror: her son had been beheaded and had suffered several “post-mortem mutilation”. Immediately, she called the Tarascon police station, but the police “hung up on her” because they would not have believed her story. After many negotiations, the police moved to the scene of the crime. And on Monday, at 6 a.m., the crime squad finally confirmed the inevitable scenario. Shortly after, the assassin was shot as he tried to flee through the rooftops.
Today, Karine and her lawyer are fighting for the investigation to succeed. “Beyond the legal problem, it’s a matter of common sense, when you see the state of this person’s apartment and talk to the neighbors,” explains Me Sarah Nabet-Claverie, Karine’s lawyer. She assures that the man was mentally unstable as could be proven “the walls filled with soot”“voodoo dolls » or even “molotov cocktails” thrown from the window. In search of justice, Karine hopes that the instruction will determine the responsibility of the doctor who allowed the exit of the assassin, that of the psychiatric hospital, even that of the State.