Emotion and tears for Sarah. Relatives of the mother of the 11-year-old girl, thrown by her father into the Rhône where she drowned on July 18, organized a white march this Sunday evening which brought together more than 200 people in Villeneuve-lès- Avignon to pay tribute to him to the sound of the favorite hits of pre-teens.
Dressed in white or light color, the crowd, who were invited to wear masks and respect barrier gestures, rushed through the city center to the stadium where the balloons were released to applause for this girl who suffered from a slight mental handicap, but who was in school. In front of the procession: a photo of Sarah, near which the mother of the victim walked without speaking. Many participants wore T-shirts featuring the girl or the hashtag #JeSuisSarah.
"It's important to be there, it's horrible what this mother went through", testified while preparing the banner "For Sarah" Virginie, a mother from the Dinarelles school in Angles who had known Sarah in kindergarten. “What is terrible is to think that whatever we do, we will not be able to bring him comfort. "
"What dad or mom couldn't care about the tragic loss of this child? »Emphasizes, surrounded by her tricolor scarf, Pascale Dorie, mayor of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon where Sarah and her mother had lived for a year and a half. “Today, we show our solidarity with a mother, a woman and a little girl. The mother is very touched by this walk, but cannot thank everyone, which is why we have set up a book of condolences. "
All last week, relatives and anonymous had already deposited photos and flowers on Piot Island in Avignon where Sarah's body was found on July 23 by divers. "We hope that as many people as possible will be present, for Sarah's memory…", a cousin of the girl warned on her Facebook page.
A Leetchi jackpot was also launched with the agreement of Sarah's mother to help her in her efforts and had collected on Sunday € 8,150 with the participation of 341 people. An evening will also be held on Thursday in, Crillons-le-Brave, to raise funds for the family.
The father indicted and imprisoned
Indicted for "homicide of a 15-year-old minor", Sergio Gil Gonzales, the father, was imprisoned on July 24. He admitted to having tied Sarah's wrists before throwing her into the Rhône where he watched her drown. Drunk at the time of the infanticide, this 38-year-old unemployed Spaniard, separated from Sarah's mother after a conviction for domestic violence, did not give clear explanations for his murderous act. After having mentioned an accident, he admitted the murder evoking an "impulse". The prosecutor of the Republic of Avignon, Philippe Guémas underlined “the context of a very conflictual separation”.
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The alleged murderer had just returned from Spain after 18 months and had reconnected with the girl he had taken for the weekend with the mother's agreement.
The hunt for Sergio Gil Gonzales in Avignon (Vaucluse) had lasted four days until his arrest in a supermarket where he had been recognized after a call for witnesses all the more widely distributed since he had been seen several times in town, but alone and without Sarah, whose body was already floating in the Rhône.