The DNA test came back positive.
The body found on August 2 in a Renault Clio immersed in the waters of the Camon canal, in Labarthe-Rivière (Haute-Garonne) is indeed that of Brice Louge, 30 years old.
The information was communicated to his parents on Monday by the investigating judge of Saint-Gaudens in charge of this case considered until now as a "disturbing disappearance".
On the other hand, the results of the other expertises ordered at the beginning of August are still not known.
Brice Louge disappeared on the night of February 19 to 20, just after being surprised in the bed of his boss, Nadine, by the latter's son.
Brice Louge would then have left the home hastily, joined his car parked on the farm before disappearing without leaving a trace.
The Camon canal, located in the immediate vicinity of the farm, had been inspected and then probed in the first weeks following the disappearance of the young man.
But it had taken the intervention of a latest generation sonar, at the beginning of August, to detect the presence of Brice Louge's car at the bottom of the canal, stuck five meters deep in a layer of mud.
At the time of the discovery, the body of the deceased was not installed on the driver's seat but in the back of the vehicle.
He was dressed and wore athletic shoes that were obviously hastily put on, the heels tucked in.
An element that echoes the testimony given by Nadine's son.
The latter declared to the gendarmes, from the Toulouse research section and the Saint-Gaudens research brigade, that Brice, in a hurry, would have first left the house barefoot, forgetting his shoes and then would have returned to his not to get them back.
The criminal hypothesis in suspense
Among the expertise still in progress, one of them is eagerly awaited by the parents of Brice Louge.
This is the search for diatoms in the respiratory tract of the deceased.
If such microalgae are found, this would support the thesis of death by drowning following accidental or intentional diving in the water in the case of suicide.
Conversely, the absence of diatoms would completely revive the criminal hypothesis.
The result of this expertise is expected by the end of this week.
In addition, several automotive appraisals are still in progress.
Initially hoped for at the beginning of September, their full results should only be known within several weeks.
A new period of three additional months would have been granted by the investigating judge.
The analyzes of the optics and the engine of the car could thus make it possible to understand if the vehicle plunged into the channel with the lights on or not, engine running or off.
Finally, DNA traces found on the doors of the Clio are still being assessed as well as the analysis of the damaged bodywork.
According to the first elements of the autopsy, no trace of blows or injuries was found on the body of Brice Louge.
“Brice’s parents will finally be able to recover their son’s body and organize a funeral, explains their lawyers, Mes Joris Morer and Camille Lauga.
But their questions about the circumstances of his death remain unanswered for the moment.
They do not understand, in particular, why Brice was found in his car in a place that had already been surveyed previously”.