It is perhaps a turning point in a tortuous affair. Thirteen years of waiting, struggle and dashed hopes for those close to Christian Maréchal. There is also a gleam in an agonizing dossier that still hangs over Chambourcy, a wealthy town in the Yvelines, west of Paris.
On March 21, 2007, Mr. Maréchal, 59-year-old municipal police chief, was found dead at his home in the early evening, his body stabbed with eighteen stab wounds. Discovered by three of his colleagues, he lay in a pool of blood, near the front door of the pavilion. Nobody had seen or heard anything. No break-in, no theft to report. The only tangible element, an unidentified DNA trace.
Several avenues are then explored by the criminal brigade of the Versailles judicial police. From the hypothesis of a revenge, linked to the professional activities of the victim, up to a settlement of accounts against the background of a financial dispute between elected officials of the municipality, passing through the possibility of a passionate drama or even a terrorist act . Without success.
DNA doesn't match
Blow of theater this Saturday, April 25. Thirteen years after the tragedy, a suspect has, according to our information, just been indicted for murder in this case and placed in pre-trial detention. “There is a body of serious and concordant evidence. Reconciliations could be made between this individual and elements of the file, "confirms Maryvonne Caillibotte, prosecutor of the Republic of Versailles. This is Pedro D., a French resident of Chambourcy, born in 1983 and known to investigators. The man appeared in the case in January 2010.
He is then the author of letters addressed to the town hall of Chambourcy and to the municipal police in which is evoked in a confused way the assassination of Christian Maréchal, presented as his "pretense". Heard a few weeks later by the investigators, the young man suffers from psychiatric problems. He claims that he does not know the municipal police chief and his DNA does not match that found at the crime scene. We also discover that he was verbalized by the municipal police before the death of Christian Maréchal but there is no concrete evidence to blame him.
Two years later, in 2012, disturbing emails were discovered by the Versailles YP. Anonymous, emanating from an unidentified author, they come from an operator in Portugal and implicate "the Maghreb community of Chambourcy" in the death of the chief of the municipal police. After the launch of an international letter rogatory, the owner is found. Again, this is Pedro D. who goes back and forth between the Yvelines and Portugal. But the investigators cannot go further. Man is left free.
In recent months, a new investigating judge has taken over the proceedings. Taking a fresh look at this particularly dense file, it redirects the investigation on the track of Pedro D. Last fall, the family of Christian Maréchal is informed of the existence of this serious track. Arrested last April 17 in the town of Chambourcy, the suspect had to be hospitalized first, his state of health being considered incompatible with police custody. He was finally charged on Saturday April 25 and placed in pre-trial detention.
Newsletter - The essentials of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
Still according to our information, the 30-year-old has so far denied having killed the former chief of the municipal police. The Versailles prosecution is still very cautious about the exact role that could have been his in this assassination. Is he suspected of having been one of the performers or one of the accomplices? He was in any case indicted for murder.
Victim of at least two killers
According to the scenario reconstructed by the Versailles YP during the first years of the investigation, Christian Maréchal, a man with an imposing stature, would have been the victim of at least two killers. Knife blades of two different sizes were indeed used and the blows dealt separately. Sitting behind his desk at the time of the attack, the chief of the municipal police of Chambourcy was probably surprised and would not have had time to flee.
According to the autopsy, a blow to the lower back would have had the initial effect of neutralizing it. His killers would then have been relentless "with rare violence", striking him several times in the chest and in the pubic area. As for Edyth Maréchal, the widow of Christian Maréchal, herself a police officer in the neighboring commune of Poissy, she was absent from the home at the time of the tragedy.
When contacted, his lawyer Me Fanny Colin, associated with the firm Versini-Campinchi, remains measured: “The family takes note of this indictment, thirteen years after the facts. But we must remain cautious and wait now for further investigations ”. If the possible motive of Pedro D. still appears very vague, the thesis of an Islamist radicalization, against a backdrop of mental illness, is today favored by the investigation services.
