He arrived as a simple witness, this Wednesday, April 7, to attend a search planned for a few days at his home, a former art gallery in Bédarieux (Hérault).
A few minutes later, it was handcuffs that Samire, 39, left his home.
Aurélie Vaquier's companion, a 38-year-old young woman who has been missing since January 28, was taken into police custody for kidnapping, kidnapping and murder after the discovery of a body under a recently poured concrete slab in the main room of his home.
At the end of the day, the prosecutor of Béziers, Raphaël Balland, let it be known that "it is very probably the body of Aurélie Vaquier, given the presence of a very particular tattoo and a piercing".
At the end of February, the gendarmes had already combed through this old art gallery where the couple had moved in November 2020. Criminal identity technicians had in particular sprayed the premises of Bluestar, a product that can detect traces of blood.
No result.
They had not then noticed this recent concrete slab, but skillfully made up and covered with many objects used during the renovation of the place.
This Wednesday, it is with heavier means that they again explored the old art gallery.
The gendarmes of the Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie thus used dogs specialized in the search for decomposing corpses and a ground penetrating radar.
It is thanks to this tool capable of detecting "changes in the nature of matter" that the investigators noted an anomaly and discovered the body, at a depth of approximately one meter.
He was reportedly buried several weeks ago.
Samire however continued to live there with his son or his grand-nephew, hosted in February.
Many inconsistencies
At this period, the thirty-something had again been heard by the gendarmes, who wondered about chronological inconsistencies and the reluctance that the former seasonal had shown to declare and share on social networks the disappearance of Aurélie.
He had not alerted the gendarmes until February 23, 26 days after the evaporation of his companion.
According to him, he had only learned of this disappearance a few days earlier, by a message sent on Facebook by Aurélie.
Disturbingly, this message was received around 1:30 am, at a time when Samire was yet officially at the couple's home and was preparing to join his family in Ain.
Above all, the text, very short, written with faulty syntax and spelling mistakes, did not match Aurélie's careful handwriting.
The silence of the thirty-something also seemed suspect to many close to the young woman.
“She wanted to get some fresh air, to isolate herself to write while the apartment was in a mess with the work we had started.
I understood perfectly, because her dream was to start writing again, ”Aurélie's companion explained on February 27.
That day he had joined longtime friends in handing out witness calls to traders.
On March 1, a judicial investigation for kidnapping and forcible confinement was opened, effectively ruling out the idea of a voluntary disappearance of Aurélie Vaquier.
Gendarmerie of the Hérault
Relatives motivated, but who were already doubtful about this voluntary, precipitous and unexplained departure.
“She would never have left us without giving news.
She was so and constantly listening to the suffering of others, ”explained Soraya, one of her friends, a month after the disappearance.
“The speech he has served us during all these days is a real tissue of lies.
By rewriting the chronology on our side, we have pointed out at least 25 inconsistencies, ”said another friend, suspicious of Samire and upset by the silence and the disappearance of Aurélie.
"He did not try to call us for three weeks, whereas in December, after an argument, he telephoned me, worried, after an hour of absence from my sister," said Jérémy, the young brother of Aurélie, who moved earth and sky to find this young woman cradled in spirituality.
The hypothesis of a voluntary disappearance ruled out
This Wednesday, Jérémy came out of the room, devastated, disfigured by grief after realizing that it was undoubtedly his sister's remains that had been cast in concrete.
"At this time, there is no absolute certainty, but several elements suggest that it is indeed her", he breathed, taking up the words of caution of the judicial machine.
This had accelerated on March 1 with the opening of a judicial investigation for kidnapping and sequestration, effectively ruling out the idea of a voluntary disappearance.
The young woman was supposed to have left without means of payment, without her mobile phone, without her car and incidentally without the laptop on which she wrote every day.
She had also left behind her Latika, her little cat "which she considered to be her baby," says Nathalie, one of her former neighbors.
“She would never have left Latika.
The last time she had left, she had entrusted it to me, ”confirms Mélanie, a close relative who initially did not believe in the potential involvement of Samire, Aurélie's new favorite.
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The two met last July.
Samire, who had just taken a seasonal job as a cook, then rented an Airbnb room in the young woman's apartment in Villeveyrac, before finally being housed by her boss near Marseillan.
A few weeks later, the two lovers found a place in Bédarieux, in which they could stay, but also open a business, both restaurant and shop.
Aurélie planned to sell the soaps and costume jewelry she offered on the markets and on the Internet.
According to the messages sent to her friends until January 21, Aurélie then seems happy.
Then silence.
“The last message is January 20, a video with friends from the West Indies.
Then nothing, ”recalls Arnaud, a friend very involved in the search for Aurélie.
"Aurélie certainly did not deserve to disappear like this," breathes another friend.
She was a bright and caring person who only sought to do good around her.
"
