“Estelle was torn away from us and nothing will be able to erase our pain.
The children will give me the courage to hold out… ”Very dignified, his voice broken by emotion and embracing his son, Alain Schmitt had the strength to say these few words in front of the hundreds of people gathered for a final tribute to his companion in Orschwihr (Haut-Rhin), this Saturday morning.
An Alsatian village where the funeral of this 39-year-old woman was celebrated.
While the family, friends and colleagues of the native of Normandy gathered in the parish of the village around 10:30 am, loudspeakers broadcast the religious ceremony on the forecourt of the building where anonymous people had gathered by the hundreds opposite to a giant photo of the missing woman posed among hundreds of immaculate flowers.
“Our whole village is shaken, never before had we known such a sudden disappearance.
She had chosen Alsace to live there for several years and Orschwihr had adopted her ”confided Marie-Josée Staender, the mayor.
VIDEO. Hundreds of people for a white march in tribute to a downed HRD
At the end of the burial in the cemetery of this town of a thousand inhabitants, a silent and moved crowd took a steep road, in the middle of the vines, to reach the Bollenberg chapel, enveloped by the music of players bagpipes.
There, Estelle's companion thanked “everyone who shows their love” after the first city councilor assured “Estelle's family of their support”.
A release of doves and balloons in the misty sky of Orschwihr attempted to brighten up the morning.
"Estelle was also a solar girl"
In this Alsatian village, Estelle Luce, mother of two daughters aged 9 and 13, had settled down a year and a half ago with the son of an eminent family of winegrowers, also father of two children.
“Alain and Estelle have had difficult life journeys.
Their meeting enabled them to reconnect with happiness, ”testify Frédéric and Charlotte, friends of the couple.
“Very bright intellectually, Estelle was also a solar girl.
I will not forget her frank smile that radiated, especially since she had found love again, ”remembers Dany, a relative of the deceased.
An idyll abruptly interrupted on the afternoon of January 26 when Estelle Luce was killed by 3 bullets in her car in the parking lot of the Knauf company in Wolfgantzen (Haut-Rhin) where she held the position of director of resources human.
This 39-year-old woman is most likely one of the targets of Gabriel Fortin, this unemployed engineer who was indicted for the murders of an employee of a Pôle Emploi agency in Valence and a HRD of a company in Ardèche, shot two days after Estelle Luce.
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Last Monday, the Mulhouse prosecutor indicated that Gabriel Fortin's DNA had been formally identified in Wattwiller.
A town in Haut-Rhin where this 45-year-old man allegedly went on the evening of January 26 to try to assassinate a former HRD from a French branch of Emerson.
“It is established that Estelle Luce was the assistant of this man that Gabriel Fortin wanted to eliminate.
This manager and she had been commissioned to relocate to Romania, ”explained the magistrate.
At the time, Gabriel Fortin was then dismissed as part of a social plan.
In Estelle Luce's entourage, there is little doubt that the native of Normandy was in the crosshairs of "this killer of HRD".
"How can you commit such an atrocity?"
Asked Virginie, her neighbor, her eyes clouded with tears.