Her intense blue eyes, framed by pretty blond curls, had haunted the Assize Court of the Somme in December 2019. Jacky Kulik had chosen this large framed photo, where Elodie appears dressed in white, at the pulpit of a church, for the place, each morning, in the courtroom.
A tribute as much as a way of defying the accused.
The same face-to-face is preparing to resume this Monday, this time in Douai (North) for the appeal trial of Willy Bardon, 46, sentenced to thirty years in prison at first instance.
The epilogue of two fights, that of a father for his daughter, tortured along a road of the Somme, facing that of a man, who claims his innocence and had tried to commit suicide by swallowing a pesticide in the statement of the verdict.
Three weeks of debates for an uncertain outcome, as the investigation, long cursed and riddled with failures, had seemed to lead to an acquittal in Amiens.
PODCAST.
Murder of Elodie Kulik: a recording, a verdict, and still gray areas
Almost twenty years have passed since Elodie Kulik's desperate call to the firefighters, shortly after midnight, on January 11, 2002. Twenty-six seconds of terror in the rough, chilling cries behind which one can distinguish, in fragments, at least two male voices. The next day, Élodie was found dead near a pile of manure in Tertry (Somme), 6 km from her damaged car. The 24-year-old bank manager was strangled, raped and her body partially charred.
The soundtrack, of poor quality, provides a clue of size, but the gendarmes then bet everything on the DNA found there.
Dozens of investigators are mobilized, hundreds of avenues explored, genetic comparisons carried out by the thousands.
Jacky Kulik himself turns into a detective, mobilizes the local media and even President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will receive him twice.
In vain.
Ten years of stalemate
The impasse will last ten years, until a new director of investigation suggests a new technique in France, called "kinship", allowing DNA analysis via a member of the same family.
It is a success, almost unexpected, but the gendarmes play bad luck: the identified man, Grégory Wiart, a plumber aged 22 at the time of the facts, died in a road accident with the appearance of suicide, at the end of 2003 … Too late to deliver the name of his accomplice or partners.
Described as a "follower", it is in his entourage that the gendarmes will look for the missing piece of this macabre puzzle.
Dozens of auditions that will last a year and from which a name emerges: Willy Bardon.
Inveterate and vulgar fledger, big mouth, he is close to Wiart, companion of drinking and 4x4 trips.
Willy Bardon at his home in April, pending his appeal trial.
PhotoPQR / "Le Courrier Picard" / Fred Haslin
On January 16, 2013, six people, including Bardon, were taken into police custody: several, including his nephew and “foster brother”, recognized him on Elodie's call to the firefighters.
He himself is so disturbed that he concedes: "It sounds like my voice", while maintaining his innocence.
He is indicted and imprisoned.
His lawyers denounce an empty and dependent investigation, in particular these custody in which every word counts, but which could not be recorded due to a technical problem.
Or this vintage cassette provided by Bardon for comparison, mislaid by justice.
This pseudo-expertise of voice, finally, whose credibility will be shattered during the trial.
Silent witnesses and expert "charlatan"
The hearing opens on November 21, 2019 in Amiens. But the debates are sterile and the witnesses silent, in particular this possible third man, with monosyllabic answers. Soundtrack ? Released multiple times, it freezes the blood but remains scientifically unusable. The voice recognition expertise, central to the case, is cut to pieces and its author qualified as a "charlatan" by the general counsel herself.
In her indictment, Anne-Laure Sandretto will also recognize the "yellow lines" crossed by the investigators, their terrible "error" in the face of a testimony that could have identified Wiart during his lifetime, the lack of evidence for some of the facts.
Despite the about-face of his foster-brother, there are still six people who have recognized the voice of the accused, who, after four short hours of deliberation, will win the intimate conviction of the jurors.
Read also Elodie Kulik case on appeal: the fight of Amélie, the companion of Willy Bardon
“This is a case in which the thirst for justice has led to one injustice being resolved by another. We wanted to find a culprit so badly that we made one! », Thunder My Marc Bailly and Gabriel Duménil, who will again defend Willy Bardon alongside Stéphane Daquo, his historical lawyer. "How do you give credit to someone who recognizes a voice while in custody, and who is falsely told:
We found your DNA
?" It's disloyal ”, abounds the criminal who, unsurprisingly, presages that the trial will be played once again on this soundtrack.
Me Didier Seban, lawyer for Jacky Kulik with Me Corinne Hermann, is ready to fight the battle on this plan.
"There are several studies showing that one can reliably identify the voice of a loved one," insists the lawyer who, himself, is sure to have recognized Bardon.
The penalist especially hopes that the hearing can pierce a breach in the silence of the witnesses.
"There are so many secrets, unspoken, inexplicable things in this file that if some finally speak, we can hope to achieve some truth."
LANDMARKS
January 11, 2002:
Élodie Kulik calls the firemen, a chilling recording that reveals the voices of at least two men in the background.
His body was found charred the next day in Tertry (Somme).
January 16, 2012:
a new DNA expert appoints Grégory Wiart as his rapist, but the man died in 2003.
January 18, 2013:
Willy Bardon, a friend of Wiart, is indicted.
Several people recognized his voice on the call for firefighters.
December 6, 2019:
He is sentenced to thirty years in prison for rape and forcible confinement followed by death, and attempts to commit suicide in the middle of the Assize Court.
June 14, 2021:
start of the appeal trial, scheduled until July 2.
