French justice has dismissed Gérald Thomassin, a former actor who has been missing for almost a year. It has long been suspected of having killed a postal worker in Ain, in 2008.
In December 2008, Catherine Burgod-Arduini, 41, mother of two and pregnant, was found dead at the postal agency in Montreal-la-Cluse (Ain), struck with 28 stabs. His attacker fled with the contents of the trunk.
The gendarmes suspect drug addicts who live opposite the agency. Among them, Gérald Thomassin, fell into addiction and marginality. He is notably known for having won a César in 1991 for his role in "Le Petit Criminel". He was arrested in 2009, then released for lack of evidence.
A new suspect
In 2013, he was indicted and imprisoned for murder on the basis of a telephone conversation with his brother, during which he seems to confess to the facts. The former actor denies it, evoking comments made under the influence of narcotics.
Released on an electronic bracelet in 2015, then readmitted for having cut his shackle, Gérald Thomassin was released in 2016 and moved to Rochefort (Charente-Maritime). A year later, a thirty-something, Anthony V., is indicted for complicity.
Rebound in 2018, with the arrest of a new suspect, Mamadou Diallo, confused by DNA traces. Charged in turn, the latter, 31 years old today and still detained, claims his innocence: he entered the postal agency to make a purchase, discovered the body and left by stealing money, according to his lawyer, Sylvie Noachovitch.
Thomassin still not found
At the end of August 2019, Gérald Thomassin had missed a judicial summons in Lyon. The trace of the former actor was lost at the time after an SNCF check on a train connecting Rochefort to Nantes.
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A friend of the former actor reported his disappearance three days later, and has been missing since. Judicial information is opened for "kidnapping and forcible confinement", a hypothesis not supported by the investigation.
