The investigation into the murder of Philippe C., 23, beaten to death on the night of Monday to Tuesday, near Carrefour City in Grande-Synthe (North) is progressing rapidly. The profile of the two minors aged 14 and 15 who were taken into police custody on Wednesday April 17 is very worrying. According to our information, the two teenagers, already known to the police, set a trap for this social worker using the dating site Coco.gg. They allegedly lured him onto this “free chat site, without registration” by posing as a young girl wanting to meet someone romantically.
Worse: the first investigations by the Lille criminal brigade reveal that the suspects are not at their first attempt. They would have come into contact with numerous Internet users, always with the idea of “punishing” those who responded to requests to meet a teenager. The gang is thus suspected of being at the origin of violence committed two days earlier, still in Grande-Synthe, against a 39-year-old man who had been given an intimate meeting. Miraculously, the victim managed to escape. Investigators are looking into whether other men may have fallen into such digital ambushes in recent months in the region.