The investigating judge in charge of the investigation into the disappearance, never elucidated, of the French tourist Tiphaine Véron in Japan in 2018, has completed her investigations, we learned this Sunday from the family lawyer. .
The investigating judge based in Poitiers, the city of origin of Tiphaine Véron, “notified the parties that she did not intend to carry out additional acts herself in the context of the information (…), she wishes to close his information, ”said Me Antoine Vey to AFP, confirming information from the JDD.
“It's a shock, we have been living a nightmare for four years, and we hoped that the magistrate could go there (in Japan, editor's note) to advance the research.
The Japanese never respond to written requests, but when we go there, they cooperate, ”responded Damien Véron, the brother of the disappeared in the JDD.
Read also“In Japan, no debate is possible”: the impotence of the relatives of Tiphaine Véron, who disappeared in 2018
For almost four years, the research carried out by his relatives on the spot has yielded nothing, no more than the judicial investigations carried out from Poitiers and in Japan, which had led a team of French police officers to go there in May 2019.
Several months ago, the investigating judge had refused to go to Japan in turn, a trip supported by the prosecution and deemed “indispensable” by the family.
This refusal was confirmed in December 2021 by the Poitiers investigating chamber.
"Privatize the investigation"
“The situation today with the end of the investigation forces us to privatize the investigation and to fend for ourselves,” lamented Damien Véron.
“We are not suspended from the decision of this investigating judge, we are just saying that it is a shame not to offer us the expertise of a French judge and his powers of investigation” in this file, has for his part commented on Me Vey this Sunday.
The end of the investigations opens a period during which the parties can make observations or request acts of investigation, before the requisitions of the prosecution and the final decision of the investigating judge.
Tiphaine Véron disappeared on July 29, 2018 in Nikko, a tourist city in northeastern Japan surrounded by hills and woods with famous sanctuaries.
Then aged 36, the young woman, epileptic, had left her hotel to go for a walk, leaving behind her suitcase, her passport and her sightseeing program.
In this case, the family of Tiphaine Véron deplores that the criminal hypothesis has "never been truly explored" by Japanese investigators.
