It was early Tuesday February 16 when the Schiltigheim sector, near Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), was cordoned off by the police.
Soon, surrounded by police officers and handcuffs, Jean-Marc Reiser, 60, protected by a bulletproof vest, arrives at 1, rue la Perle for a reenactment.
It is there, in his studio on the sixth floor of this small recent building, that he is suspected of having killed Sophie Le Tan, a young student who had the misfortune to respond to her real estate ad on September 7, 2018, day of its 20th anniversary.
For more than 8 hours that day, Jean-Marc Reiser answered questions from the examining magistrate and reproduced the actions that cost the young woman her life. If he wants to be cooperative at the end of the instruction, this has not always been the case. From his custody, in September 2018, the one who was sentenced in 2001 to 15 years in prison for the rape of a German hitchhiker denies: no, he has never seen Sophie Le Tan, nor posted any announcement on Leboncoin. No, he didn't have an appointment with her the day she disappeared. Asked about the possibility that we find traces of Sophie's DNA in his apartment, suspect n ° 1 exclaims: “Impossible! His assurance will be explained later. The man has indeed cleaned his studio from top to bottom and even unscrewed and scrubbed the siphon of his bathtub.
Jean-Marc Reiser is the main suspect in the Sophie Le Tan case./DR
At the end of police custody, the investigators tell him: the DNA of the young woman has been found in her home.
Jean-Marc Reiser then closes and wallows in silence.
A few hours later, when he was presented to the Strasbourg investigating judge for his indictment, the suspect announced that he would not speak until he had been able to consult the file.
Clearly, the man wants to know what the investigators found against him.
The dismembered body discovered in the forest
Once again placed in front of the magistrate in charge of the investigation, Jean-Marc Reiser serves another version. On the day of his disappearance, he passed Sophie Le Tan in front of his building, whom he knew from the university. The young woman had an injured finger, he said. It is to look after her that he invites her to his home. Once her wound is healed, the young woman leaves the premises.
A year later, the remains of Sophie Le Tan were discovered in a forest west of Strasbourg, where Jean-Marc Reiser had his habits in his childhood. She was dismembered. But the suspect still doesn't speak. It was not until January 2021 that he requested a new interview with the judge who was preparing to close his investigation. This time, the 60-year-old seems to want to get a little closer to the truth. The main suspect acknowledges having placed a real estate ad on Leboncoin and having had an appointment with the young victim whom he went down to look for in front of his building. Jean-Marc then explains having tried to seduce and kiss Sophie who would have repulsed him. An outburst of blows would then have taken place. But he denies having intended to kill the young woman.
A few weeks later, a reconstruction is organized in the small 20m² of Schiltigheim.
Surrounded by his lawyers and in the presence of members of the SRPJ in Strasbourg, the accused answers questions and unfolds his version of the sad day of September 7, 2018. What are the binoculars found in his apartment used for?
"I was looking at the mountains in the distance," he replies, pushing aside the idea that he was observing the young women who had answered his real estate ad before letting them go up ...
"We contest the qualification of murder with premeditation"
As for the gestures that killed Sophie Le Tan, it is a new version that Jean-Marc Reiser delivers this time.
The suspect invokes an absence of memories: “I have a black hole!
»Did he sexually abuse the young woman?
The man does not answer.
“According to his statements, he was clearly in a trance which pushed him to strike uncontrollably, under the influence of extremely strong emotion, underlines Me Pierre Giurato, the suspect's lawyer.
We challenge the characterization of premeditated murder.
We are rather in the hypothesis of fatal blows resulting in death without intention of giving it.
"
Read also Affair Sophie Le Tan: the shadow of Reiser on the disappearance of Françoise Hohmann
Coldly, the man then recounts the ease with which he dismembered the young woman, a task that would have taken him only 30 to 45 minutes.
Sophie's bruised body is then placed in two suitcases and transported to the cellar of the building.
It was only a few days later that he transported the student's body to an Alsatian forest.
"Reiser's confessions are utilitarian but unfortunately do not correspond to the reality of the atrocious acts he committed on Sophie", qualify Me Gérard Welzer and Me Rémi Stephan, who represent the Le Tan family.
On March 12, the investigating judge issued an end of information notice.
Jean-Marc Reiser should be sent back to the assizes.
