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Serial killers: how Salvac investigative software "puts the pieces of the puzzle together"

2021-10-16T04:51:37.927Z


INTERVIEW - While it recently helped identify Hail, the police commander in charge of this software that tracks serial killers tells us more about how it works.


What do the affairs of the rapist of the Sambre, that of the "rapist backpacker" in Lorraine and more recently the case of Hail have in common? In all three cases, Salvac software, a valuable tool for tracking down serial killers, was used by investigators. Coming from across the Atlantic, the Crime-Associated Violence Analysis System has been helping French police since 2003 to elucidate the thousands of cold cases that accumulate in French courts. Gwladys Gouilliart, police commander, group leader in charge of Salvac at the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ), discusses the interest of this software for cross-checking between cases.

LE FIGARO.

- Among the mass of criminal cases, and a fortiori of unsolved cases, how do you choose those of interest for the Salvac software?

Gwladys Gouilliart.

-

Since his arrival in France, Salvac has accumulated in memory about 15,000 files.

They are studied by eleven analysts, seasoned judicial police officers, able to identify the different types of predators and to distinguish between what belongs to the operating mode and the behaviors which react to the reactions of the victim.

Spontaneously, 10% of the cases are brought back to us by investigators who are in difficulty on a file and hope to obtain a reconciliation.

The rest of the time, we rely on institutional sources.

Salvac's scope extends to rape and sexual assault (50% of cases), kidnappings (30%), homicides (15%) and disappearances with a proven criminal cause (5%).

But the essential condition is that the perpetrator did not know the victim.

This sorting automatically excludes domestic violence, as well as settling of scores, which automatically limits the database of cases handled by Salvac, and this is precisely its strength.

What information does Salvac software need to identify a potential serial killer?

The software is made up of some 150 sections allowing to dissect all the contacts between the author and the victim, from the first to the last. We ask investigators or magistrates for the reports of the hearings of victims, as well as the findings allowing us to obtain a physical description of the aggressor, his possible vehicle, a possible weapon, the geographical area and the spatio-temporal framework of the facts.

Then we look at how the aggressor approached: did he use the trick in asking for information?

During the event, what precautions did he take?

Put your hand on the victim's mouth or blow the circuit breakers to plunge the home into darkness?

Finally, we look at the behavior during the act: was it violent?

What words did he say?

What sexual abuse did he impose on her?

A reconciliation is established on a bundle of relevant elements, the investigator then to see if the runway is usable.

A reconciliation established by Salvac does not therefore systematically lead to the arrest of a suspect?

Absolutely not, Salvac is an investigative aid when there is no lead.

Information is kept for 40 years and software has the advantage of not being subject to the vagaries of human memory.

But I usually say that 90% of the facts are reconciled by the investigators.

When we establish a reconciliation, a report is sent to the investigators or to the examining magistrate in charge of the case.

It is up to them to then confirm or deny the leads advanced by Salvac.

To read also Jacques Dallest: "It is necessary that certain magistrates are entirely dedicated to cold cases"

Since its creation, 364 reports have been made by our services.

In half of the cases, it was not possible to perform a meaningful actual reconciliation.

Either because the investigator is unable to materialize the implication of the suspect, or because the assault goes back many years and the victim no longer wishes to return to the investigation.

It can, for example, refuse to participate in the identification on a photographic plate.

You use the term “aggressor” a lot.

Should we deduce from this that the profiles recorded in Salvac are essentially male?

Absolutely.

No female sexual predators are recorded, unless they are registered as a co-author.

So 99.9% of the perpetrators, identified or not, are men.

Of all the victims present in our software (alive or dead), 60% are pubescent victims and 40% are under 13 years old.

In the first category, women represent three-quarters of the cases.

Michel Fourniret's journey has shown that serial killers are not limited to our French borders.

How can Salvac be of use abroad?

At European level, there is also cooperation. The software is licensed in Canada, but other countries such as Belgium, UK, Switzerland and Germany also use it, under the acronym, VICLAS (

Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System

). With these investigators, we work on the same type of file, we speak the same language, so there are very frequent contacts.

It is also a Franco-Belgian cooperation, supported by Salvac, which allowed in 2018 the arrest of a suspect in the case of the rapist of the Sambre, a man accused of 51 rapes and sexual assaults by on the other side of the border.

Lille investigators had blamed him for the facts and then Salvac sent Brussels information on his modus operandi.

Very quickly, our Belgian counterparts alerted us: “be

careful, we have a profile with matches, with partial DNA.

Salvac is a helping hand to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-10-16

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