It's an incredible twist in a 28 year old cold case.
A man has just been indicted for the murder, in January 1993 in Sassenage (Isère), of a woman and the daughter of the latter, aged 13, "preceded or accompanied by the rape" of the teenage girl.
And this man, now 72 years old, is not just anyone, since he is the husband and father of the two victims.
On January 7, 1993, the lifeless bodies of Michèle Marinescu, 43, and her daughter Christine, 13, were found in their house in Sassenage, in the suburbs of Grenoble.
A savage double murder.
The victims were slaughtered with a knife.
"A real butcher's shop", confided an investigator.
Despite all the investigations by the gendarmes of the Grenoble Research Section (SR), the investigation stalled for almost three decades.
Nothing was stolen from the house, but the trail of a burglary gone awry is being investigated.
There is also a possible crime of prowler.
Then, the possible revenge of a cleaning lady who had been fired by Michèle Marinescu.
But these leads will not give anything.
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Danièle Castro, Michèle Marinescu's sister and Christine's aunt, moves heaven and earth so that the file does not fall into oblivion.
Thanks to her, the affair was mentioned in 1995 in the famous Jacques Pradel program "Witness N ° 1".
With the aim of trying to collect new testimonies.
In vain.
Marian Marinescu, husband and father of the victims, seems above all suspicion.
It must be said that this 45-year-old engineer, director of a computer company, has a concrete alibi: at the time of the facts, with his son Julien, 7, he claimed to be in Romania, his country of origin. , to spend the end of year holidays with his family.
Advances in DNA
Five judges will follow one another in this case. In January 2000, judge Luc Fontaine tried to relaunch the case by launching "a final call for witnesses", seven years after the facts. “This is the last-ditch call to ensure that such a horrific crime does not go unpunished. The assassins acted with incredible violence. It is a barbaric crime, ”insists the magistrate. But the matter continues to remain a mystery.
At the end of 2018, an investigator from the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN) based in Pontoise, and a criminal analyst from the Isère gendarmerie group, embarked on a complete rereading of the file. They offer new leads to investigating magistrates and ask them to carry out new expertises, based on scientific progress in DNA analysis. “The investigation underwent a major rebound at the very beginning of 2021 following the results provided by the genetic analysis laboratory of the IRCGN which revealed numerous traces of Marian Marinescu's sperm on the pants. of his daughter Christine ”, explains Éric Vaillant, the public prosecutor of Grenoble, for whom“ these data are unequivocal ”.
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The suspect's schedule, called by gendarmerie specialists “a time line”, is then reviewed in detail.
And the concrete alibi of Marian Marinescu is then totally questioned.
He was very well able, at first, to go to Romania with his son Julien, to return to Isère to kill his wife and daughter.
Then, go back to Romania.
How to explain this gesture?
This Monday, June 14, Marian Marinescu was arrested in Isère, where he still resided and placed in police custody. “In front of the gendarmerie investigators, and in the face of the evidence presented, he indicated that, assuming that it was him, he had no memory of having committed the acts. Before the two investigating judges in charge of the case, he wished to remain silent, ”said the prosecutor.
The man, now 72 years old, was indicted for "murder", "preceded or accompanied by the rape of his daughter" and imprisoned. How to explain such a savage double murder on the part of a husband and a father? The prosecutor remains vague for the moment on the motive of these crimes: “There are elements in the file. There were tensions in the couple. They had, at one point, talked about divorce. It revolves around that, ”says Éric Vaillant. But why go as far as "the unnamable" by raping your daughter before killing her? This question remains unanswered.
Contacted, Daniele Castro, sister and aunt of the victims, just said a few words: “It's the worst. It's too appalling. "For his lawyer, Me Hervé Gerbi," the investigation led to the worst possible hypothesis for this family which for 28 years sought the truth ". A family which surrounded with its affection the young Julien who, in 1993 lost his mother and his sister in terrible circumstances. "And in this context, Danièle Castro, his aunt, continued to maintain relations with his ex-brother-in-law," said the lawyer. It should be noted that Marian Marinescu was little involved in the calls for witnesses launched during these 28 years to help identify the murderer (s) of his wife and daughter.
