Alistair Baker was 22 years old, blond hair and life ahead of him. Originally from Maisons-Laffitte (Yvelines), this Franco-Briton studied on the benches of a Parisian school of engineers (ESIEA) and specialized in the computer processing of "big data", the gold mine of the digital age. In early 2018, he flew to Pori, Finland, for a five-month university exchange.
Smile slung, Alistair gradually integrates into the student community, without forcing his home-like nature. The young man, singer and guitarist in his spare time, addicted to online games, is described by several of his comrades as a “brilliant”, “sociable and of equal humor” or even “modest or even secret” student. He is also passionate about cryptocurrency which he tries to model and predict the evolution of prices. A few weeks before his death, his entourage is aware that he has five bitcoins, for a total value fluctuating, at that time, around 50,000 euros.
A strange bike route
Wednesday, March 21, he is invited like twenty people to the birthday of Andrea, a German student. The evening was punctuated by drinking games and concluded with a massage session between girls and boys, "not naked", specifies one of the witnesses to the scene. "Alistair had drunk beer and whiskey but without excess ..." remembers this close present on the spot. Some have chosen to extend the night in a disco.
"Baker", as his friends call him, prefers to leave the premises a little before 2 am, at the same time as François, his roommate. The two Frenchmen agree to go home together. To do this, they have to cycle five kilometers on poorly lit roads. But according to the roommate's explanations, the last known person to have seen him alive, Alistair finally decides to leave alone.
Should he go to a secret meeting? According to the GPS readings of his mobile phone that we consulted, Alistair Baker then took the direction of an industrial zone which shelters a power station, a sawmill and a factory of cardboard boxes. When approaching the site, his cycling route becomes erratic. He crosses a frozen river at least four times ...
But what is he looking for? The hypothesis of a “Pokémon Go” type geolocation game was weighed up, without result. Alistair then crosses the fence which delimits the industrial area. At 2:24 a.m., his silhouette appeared in the field of a site surveillance camera. His phone is on the move inside the area until 3:54 am. Then the device freezes.
A fall of 12 meters?
Thirteen hours later, a little before 5 p.m., his lifeless body was discovered by one of the guards at the power station near a parking lot, at the foot of an abandoned building. The young man is lying on his right side. Streaks of blood escaped from his mouth and nose. He wears a dark North Face jacket and a backpack. His phone is found intact in a pocket in his pants.
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The autopsy revealed fractures of a rib and the pelvis, a tear in both lungs and internal bleeding in the thoracic and abdominal cavities. So many injuries that can correspond to the shock caused by a blunt object or a car ... Or by a fall, back back, from the roof of this 12 m high building, at the foot of which it lies. The forensic scientist, it retains only the latter hypothesis.
In addition, toxicological analyzes indicate a blood alcohol level of 0.83 g / l and reveal no trace of drugs. Without carrying out extensive investigations, the Finnish investigators quickly turned to the thesis of an accidental fall, or even suicide. But they cannot formally dismiss the trail of a homicide. On the French side, the Versailles prosecution opens an investigation to determine the causes of death. The case was closed without follow-up last June.
"We were told it was impossible"
Paralyzed by the drama, Jonathan and Isabelle, Alistair's parents first accepted the idea of a simple accident. But over time, doubts have arisen. The time and place of the discovery of the body first presents an inconsistency. How to explain that it was necessary to wait until the end of the afternoon for the body of the young man to be noticed in this place of passage used all day by the employees of the power station?
Then, how did Alistair gain access to the roof of this disused building? "The guard who discovered my son told us that it was impossible," breathes Isabelle Baker. In its summary note, the Finnish police nevertheless mentions the existence of access from the outside as from the inside of the building. Seized by the Baker family, the criminal lawyers Roger-Marc Moreau and Marc Eterno come to the opposite conclusion. "The facade of the building offers no grip and all the doors are locked," they detail. We do not see how he could have reached the roof, especially in the middle of the night. "
Another disturbing element, the industrial site is supposed to be completely secure. Except that a screen door, visibly vandalized, offers any walker the freedom to enter effortlessly inside. Impossible then to exclude the hypothesis of another human presence on the spot the night of the drama.
The body moved after his death?
Finally, technical information completes the discussion. Director of ESIEA and IT security specialist, Loïc Roussel used geolocation data from Alistair's phone. According to his analysis, the phone remains stationary in the middle of the industrial area from 3:54 am, probable time of the death of the young French.
But very surprisingly, the phone sets in motion again at 3:07 p.m. for a few tens of meters towards the place where the body will be found, just before 5 p.m. Does this movement correspond to a displacement of Alistair's body that one would have wanted to highlight after having concealed it?
"I have the conviction that Alistair was not alone in the walls of this factory that night," says his mother Isabelle Baker. Faced with too many gray areas of the case, Me Eric Moutet, the lawyer for the Baker parents, filed a complaint against X last November for "murder, manslaughter and / or violence resulting in the death without intention of the give ”with constitution of civil party. To date, the answer from the dean of the Versailles investigating judges is still pending.