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Delphine Jubillar and Diary Sow cases: "About 200 people disappear every day in France"

2021-01-16T07:28:55.518Z


From the voluntary act to the criminal trail, cases of disappearances cover very different scenarios, explains Bernard Valé


The recent disappearances of Delphine Jubillar, a nurse from Tarn, and Diary Sow, a Senegalese student in Paris, have brought the phenomenon to light.

Each year, nearly 50,000 minors and some 23,000 adults disappear from radars under a wide variety of conditions.

Behind the statistics, so many unique stories and broken destinies that Bernard Valézy observes closely.

This 64-year-old divisional police commissioner is involved in associations serving the families of missing persons as vice-president of the ARPD (Assistance and search for missing persons).

This structure, which brings together 150 volunteers, organizes investigations when the police or gendarmerie did not consider it necessary to open an investigation or when the file has been closed.

How widespread is the phenomenon of disappearances in France?

BERNARD VALÉZY.

In recent years, the numbers have been relatively stable.

About 50,000 minors go missing for a few days, weeks or more.

If we compare with the beginning of the 2000s, we still observe a 40% increase in the number of missing minors.

As for adults, the number of worrying disappearances is estimated at 18,000 per year, a number to which must be added between 4,000 and 5,000 disappearances considered as not worrying at the origin.

This amounts to saying that on average, around 200 people, both adults and minors, disappear every day in France.

The term “disappeared” covers very different realities.

What are the different types of disappearances?

There are seven of them. First, there are voluntary disappearances when the individual seeks to change his life or to escape from a certain reality.

It is very painful for relatives and friends, but it remains a "positive" case.

Because there are unfortunately also disappearances following a suicide, in the event that the body is not found immediately.

We also think of accident victims.

Example, a hiker falls into a ravine and we only discover it a few months later.

Another type of disappearance is disorientation.

This typically concerns people with degenerative diseases (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, etc.).

Then there are the kidnappings of children by one of the parents, disappearances of criminal origin and finally a seventh category which is that of undetermined cases.

This unfortunately does exist.

When you don't know anything, even a long time later.

This represents around 1,000 people each year.

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Disappearance of Diary Sow, Senegalese student in Paris: "The criminal hypothesis seems ruled out"


In the particular case of voluntary disappearances, what do we know about the motivations of the people?

The category of minors is very well documented, since each disappearance of a person under the age of 18 gives rise to the opening of a police or gendarmerie investigation.

In the most frequent case, at 24%, it is about a romantic "getaway".

The young person escapes to find another person.

In 21% of situations, this is a consequence of a family conflict.

There remain three other main explanations: a school problem (9%), bad company (9%) or a desire for emancipation (8%).

Regarding minors, a 2017 study establishes that about a third of runaways end in less than 48 hours, another third does not exceed a month and in the last third, it exceeds the month.

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What then of the voluntary disappearances of adults?

This phenomenon is less well known, because each disappearance does not give rise to an investigation.

If the police or the gendarmerie considers that there are reasons to believe that this disappearance is voluntary, it does not go further in many cases.

And these people are therefore never really wanted.

However, this initial assessment, in the first hours following a disappearance, can lead to dramatic errors.

A person can indeed organize a voluntary departure, but this experience can lead to a very bad meeting, an abduction followed by forcible confinement, for example.

But how do you know?

This is why we are campaigning within the ARPD association (assistance and search for missing persons) so that each missing person is registered in the wanted persons file (FPR) or in a specific file dedicated to disappearances.

At the same time, we would like the relatives of the missing to be informed of the possibility that they have to donate their DNA for registration to the FNAEG (National Automated DNA File) so that cross-checks can take place later, in particular with people buried under X.

Even if this particular case of voluntary disappearances of adults is not well known, what are the most frequent motives?

The most frequent situation affects individuals suffering from psychiatric problems (schizophrenia or bipolar) or neurodegenerative disease.

Disappearance for sentimental reasons comes second, ahead of organized flight to escape debt problems.

Finally, there is the disappearance planned with a view to suicide.

Not all disappearances are considered "worrying" by the investigation services.

How is it possible to distinguish?

For this, there may be objective elements.

If a person left their home with a backpack, means of payment, and some clothing, this tends to reassure investigators.

For families, it is obviously something else.

The study of telephony also allows, in some cases, access to essential information.

In an “easy” scenario, when the telephone is still active, this gives access to a location, even approximate, of the person.

In a more complicated case, we can still understand the relational environment of the deceased, thanks to the study of incoming and outgoing calls and messages.

But it is still necessary that the police or gendarmerie take the trouble to carry out this work.

Which is not systematic.

READ ALSO>

Disappearance of Delphine Jubillar: a discreet life at the rate of children and work


What is the power of families of missing adults and what freedom is left to the voluntary disappearance?

Until 2013, relatives had an administrative procedure called “research in the interest of families” (RIF), which allowed them, under certain conditions, to report a non-worrying disappearance and to register the disappeared in the File of missing persons.

The deletion of this procedure has the harmful effect of making all disappearances that are not considered worrying a priori forgotten.

On the other hand, missing persons, when they are of legal age or do not fall into the category of protected adults (

Editor's note: victims of alterations of mental or physical faculties or persons under guardianship

), have the freedom not to reappear. with their relatives.

That is to say ?

Disappearance is not a crime, and family members of the disappeared are not considered victims.

The police or gendarmerie, when they find them, ensure that the person is safe and offer to put him in touch with his relatives.

But if she refuses, the investigation stops there.

The family will only be informed that their loved one is alive, but will not receive any indication to locate them.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2021-01-16

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