M6 will in turn seize criminal files.
After C8, which attempted an issue of “Cold case, in search of the culprit” with Carole Rousseau on March 9, and France 2, which inaugurated in mid-February “At the end of the investigation, the end of the perfect crime?
»Saturday at 2 pm, the private channel will be interested in unresolved cases by adopting a particular approach: to mobilize the televiewers.
According to our information, with the program "Call for witnesses", which could arrive live and in prime time before the summer, it will be a question of gathering information allowing to explore new avenues and to solve puzzles for the dead end hour.
The result is an XL device, designed in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior and the Chancellery.
Three cases per number
Each year, 10,000 disappearances (out of the 50,000 recorded) remain unexplained, and there are nearly 200 “cold cases” (unresolved or even closed legal cases) in France.
“The idea is to ask viewers to help us,” says Jean-Marie Goix, producer of
Call for Witnesses
at C Prod, the in-house production company.
For distraught families, it is a kind of last chance because they have been waiting for years to find out what happened when a loved one has disappeared or been the victim of a murder that we do not have. found the murderer.
"
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Three cases, which date from five or six, even twelve years for the oldest, will be approached in each number, chosen by the investigators. On the menu of the first: the Gaëlle Fosset affair, named after this 21-year-old young woman killed in April 2007, the body larded by 66 stab wounds in a village in the Eure, as well as two unexplained disappearances.
“These will be cases where we have exhausted all possibilities, opened and closed all doors and where a call for witnesses at prime time can change the situation, for example a testimony that we did not have. not, advance Camille Chaize, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior.
It's new for us, but M 6's approach interested us because there is no desire for voyeurism and everything is done with dignity, with the agreement of families, prosecutors, etc.
We try to trigger awareness and word of mouth.
"
No reconstitution
Live for two hours, “Call for witnesses” will take place for two-thirds on the stage where stakeholders - police, gendarmes, prosecutor, examining magistrates, psychologists, criminologists,….
- explain the investigations carried out and share their intuitions on different hypotheses.
Topics will be broadcast in the preamble.
"It is a question of immersing the viewer so that he wants to mobilize", explains Jean-Marie Goix, who recalls that out of 29 kidnapping alerts broadcast since 2010, "there has been 100% success".
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“For this to be didactic, people need to know in a first report what we are talking about and, in a second, what has already been done. They will also be referred to what the investigators are looking for. ". "It can be a testimony on the journey of a person the days preceding his disappearance, elements on suspicious individuals ...", specifies Camille Chaize. Duplexes are being considered with a reporter at the key locations of one of the cases.
Will we be witnessing a 2021 version of "Witness number 1", the program hosted by Jacques Pradel on TF1 from 1993 to 1996?
"This is nothing like other shows because we work in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior, the Chancellery and there will be no reconstitution as is the case abroad, insists the producer.
Relatives of the victims will be on the set, and there is no question of making them relive the tragedy.
"
An extraordinary standard
During the live, a non-surcharged toll-free number will be set up and eight police and gendarmerie officials will collect anonymous testimonies as an aside. “In this type of program, there can be up to 600 calls,” notes Jean-Marie Goix. Music will make you wait, but if the wait is too long, viewers can leave a message. A phone call deemed interesting will be transferred to the heads of investigation installed in a room near the plateau, away from the cameras, to begin to launch the checks.
For now, M6 has ordered three issues. From the second, a progress report will be made on the matters discussed in the first. In addition, RTL, the group's radio station, will be associated with the system: the subjects of “Call for witnesses” will be mentioned before the broadcast, in the morning hours on D-day and in “L'heure du crime”. It remains to be seen which duo of presenters will be responsible for bringing the program to the Six.