Their move in was short-lived.
As soon as the luggage was put down, a couple from Metz was arrested by the gendarmes on September 16 in an unoccupied apartment in Saint-Avold (Moselle) bought as an annuity.
According to them, the owner who sold them the home, Michel Voltz, 82, is dead.
Except that on this date, officially, the retiree has only disappeared.
On September 18, the couple were indicted and imprisoned for murder.
The forties were remanded in custody at Metz remand center.
In the heart of summer 2020, Michel Voltz vanishes for no reason, overnight.
In the small town of Faulquemont (Moselle), his neighbors, used to greeting him laconically, are worried about seeing his shutters closed.
In good health for his age, the man is not sick and never receives visitors.
Absent is not a habit either.
On July 16, the gendarmes launched a search notice.
A week later, the prosecution opened an investigation for "worrying disappearance" then "kidnapping and sequestration".
"It was immediately taken seriously, there was something suspicious," blows a source close to the file.
At the start of the school year, the business bounced back.
By going through Michel Voltz's accounts, the gendarmes discovered the existence of an apartment for which he had been receiving an income for several years.
The accommodation, located on the outskirts of Saint-Avold, was sold as a life annuity to a couple and the retiree must receive rent until his death.
Investigators are therefore interested in those who benefit from the death of Michel Voltz.
"Nothing says that it is the motive, but it is the notable and initial link between the couple and the victim", confides a source close to the file.
A hole dug for a tank, but no tank
The couple's man, in his thirties, particularly calls out to the gendarmes of the Mets research section.
Known for petty crimes and scams, he has access to a piece of land on the edge of Dalhain, a hamlet located about twenty kilometers from Michel Voltz.
Isolated land just cleared this summer and on which the suspect officially wanted to graze a few goats.
As on the neighboring plot, where there is a small hut.
During the summer, the thirty-something asks a digger in the area to dig a hole for him with an agricultural machine to place a water collection tank.
What to water the animals, claims the customer.
The entrepreneur does.
Until the gendarmes question him at the start of the school year.
Yes, to think about it, the size of the hole requested by the customer does not really correspond to that of a tank, thinks the digger.
Too wide and shallow ...
On this isolated land near Dalhain (Moselle), the gendarmes dug up to three meters deep.
DR
On the morning of November 18, ten cars from the Research Section (SR) of the Metz gendarmerie, the criminal identification cell of the Moselle gendarmerie group and a German dog team parked on the road little traffic leading to the land in Dalhain.
Experts from the National Gendarmerie Criminal Research Institute (IRCGN) pitch a tent near the muddy field.
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The gendarmes dismantle the wooden hut supposed to house the tank.
There is no tank.
By digging a meter underground, they fall on the other hand on the corpse of Michel Voltz.
Unrecognizable.
The soldiers could not establish, at first glance, whether it was a man or a woman.
What happened on this ground, in the hours preceding the death of Michel Voltz?
Heard before the holidays by the investigating judge, the couple continues to show "little collaboration", confides a judicial source.
"I can't believe we could have hurt him"
The certainty, according to our information, is that the body of the octogenarian was burned.
The heap of earth, mixed with the turned over wood, "contained traces of burning", explains Didier Conte, the mayor (SE) of Dalhain.
"In a small village like ours, we are not used to such a deployment of gendarmes," said the elected official.
It was discovered that they had unearthed a body in the newspaper.
The gendarmes stayed until 10:30 p.m., they dug up to three meters, probably to check if other bodies had been buried.
There may be a precedent, you never know… ”
The land where Michel Voltz's body was found in Dalhain.
LP / Bartolomé Simon
In Foulquemont, Michel Voltz had two daily rituals: pushing his cart to the local supermarket and depositing a copy of the Republican Lorrain in his neighbor's mailbox.
Isolated, with no known family, this former clerk of the Nancy court sometimes gave some administrative help in the neighborhood.
“He was always alone, very nice, we sometimes exchanged a few words, as with many retirees here,” recalls the pharmacist.
"He was a fit grandpa, who received no visitors," testifies a neighbor.
The only times we saw him were when he was doing some gardening and hanging out his laundry in front of his house.
"
Few have been able to enter into a dialogue with Michel Voltz, who has been living for three years in this quiet pavilion on rue des Lilas, a little far from the city center.
All of them learned of his former profession in the press and are struggling to understand his death.
“He was not mean for two cents, even rather sympathetic, assures a neighbor.
I can't believe we could have hurt him… ”
Judicial seals have been affixed to the house of Michel Voltz in Faulquemont.
LP / Bartolomé Simon
Without a car, the retiree sometimes ventured to the church of Faulquemont, which had dedicated a mass to him in October following his disappearance.
Orange judicial seals with the words "disturbing disappearance" now bar the front door of the small house with beige plaster.