In the photos of her Facebook page, which has been preserved in her memory, Nicky's smile is everywhere.
Here behind the counter of his shop "les Galeries gauloises" in Parc Asterix, there with his arms in the air in one of the amusement park rides, further surrounded by the two most famous mascots of the Gauls or alongside his friends…
This Wednesday, 1497 days after his death, it is again this smile that will accompany his relatives at the opening of the trial of his alleged murderer before the Assize Court of Oise.
For three days, Romain B. will appear before jurors for the assassination of Nicky Regnault, then 37 years old.
The young man was found dead, stabbed at his home in Béthisy-Saint-Pierre, a small town in the Oise, on October 21, 2016. The alleged perpetrator was arrested three days later, before recognizing the facts.
He waited for his murderer naked, blindfolded
On the evening of the tragedy, while his mother with whom he lives was absent for the weekend, Nicky Regnault makes an appointment with this young man of 22 years with whom he has been talking for several months on a dating site.
In the apartment on avenue du Val-d'Automne, the two men then meet for the first time.
The front door is open, Nicky awaits her one night guest, naked, blindfolded, on her bed.
The host then receives a stab wound to the throat.
In total, his alleged murderer will not have stayed more than ten minutes in the apartment, before going to take refuge in a hotel a few kilometers away.
"I didn't understand why him"
The next day, one of Nicky's colleagues worries about not seeing him at his post and gives the alert.
It is the gendarmes who will warn his mother after having found the lifeless body in the apartment.
“I was an operator in the park and every morning, with Nicky, we met to point, recalls Steven, one of his many friends.
We were surprised that he wasn't present, it didn't look like him.
It was with a message from a mutual friend that I learned that he had been found dead at his home.
I asked to leave my post because I was not feeling well, I did not understand why him.
"
Nicky Regnault was passionate about the world of amusement parks.
That day, Steven lost one of his dearest friends.
The two boys had in common the passion for Parc Astérix but also for Mylène Farmer, "the singer he adored".
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“Until the funeral, I couldn't get used to the idea that he was no longer with us,” says Steven.
I realized in the church, I cracked.
For the release of the coffin, they put two songs by Mylène Farmer, it was almost unbearable.
"
As often with Nicky, it is around his favorite park that the two enthusiasts meet on social networks.
“I met him in April 2012 and a very, very great friendship was born, Steven rewinds.
Nicky was a person of incomparable kindness, always present, always smiling.
His very infectious laugh always echoes when I look at pictures of him.
"
"Nicky was looking for love a lot, but it was fail after failure"
“Nicky was a love, someone very kind, who had the heart on the hand, slips Marine, another friend.
He was very funny, his laughter will mark us again and again.
As soon as we saw him, he gave us a good mood.
"
This autumn evening, does Nicky Regnault believe he finally meets the right person while waiting for his murderer?
“Nicky was looking for love a lot, but it was fail after failure,” says Steven.
I knew he was on sites not long before.
But even with failures, he was smiling.
"Failures in love on which he confided little, assure his relatives.
“Nicky had to meet this person to have a romantic relationship.
His killer pretended to be gay when he was simply homophobic and not very well in his head, wants to believe Marine.
He took our Nicky from us by murdering her like a vulgar thing, all because he was gay and he was looking for love.
"
"An extraordinary expert battle"
A homophobic crime?
"Not at all", cut Me Maxime Gallier, lawyer Romain B., according to whom this version was quickly dismissed.
For the defense, the accused, plagued by "psychiatric disorders", would have been guided by "voices" which told him to "avenge his mother", who died a few years earlier.
"That evening, the voices were too loud," said the lawyer.
The latter therefore expects, during these three days of trial, "a battle of extraordinary experts" about the alteration or not of the judgment of his client at the time of the facts.
No less than eight specialists must thus come and testify before the Assize Court.
Answers that are also waiting for those close to Nicky.
"Why did he go after him?"
Steven asks.
Is there a matter of money or of the heart?
We just want to have an answer and that he be condemned for having taken our Nicky from us… ”
Her alleged murderer faces life imprisonment.
