Rebound in the investigation into the disappearance of the employee of the Avignon hospital whose bones had been found a few months later by hunters. His ex-companion was indicted in Nîmes for kidnapping and forcible confinement followed by murder, and placed in pre-trial detention.
She was nicknamed “the missing person from the Avignon hospital” as her disappearance was so mysterious.
This is a major twist in this case: the ex-companion of Marie-Pascal Sidolle, employee of the Avignon hospital who lived in Roquemaure, remained untraceable for two years, was indicted and imprisoned.
The 58-year-old man was indicted this Friday at the Nîmes judicial court for “kidnapping and forcible confinement followed by murder”, and placed in pre-trial detention.. He is suspected of having killed his ex-girlfriend and mother of his daughter, announce our colleagues from Objectif Gard. Information confirmed by Eric Maurel, public prosecutor in Nîmes.
Marie-Pascale Sidolle disappeared on April 14, 2019. She disappeared from the parking lot of the Avignon hospital where she came to take up her service on Easter Monday. She had left her home in Roquemaure a quarter of an hour earlier, where she had been living alone for a few months after separating from her companion. On the hospital’s CCTV cameras, we saw her arriving alone in her car at the hospital center.
A few minutes later, she still came out in her car, but accompanied by a man in the driver’s seat. The telephone of Marie-Pascale Sidolle had stopped near a wood in Pujaut. He had been searched by investigators. Then the teacher’s car was found burnt out in Avignon. The 50-year-old, unanimously described as punctual and serious in her work, will no longer give a sign of life.
His bones were discovered by hunters two years later in the garrigue, in the town of Aramon in the Gard, about fifteen kilometers from Avignon. DNA analysis confirmed the identity of the victim. A judicial investigation for “murder and kidnapping” was opened by the Nîmes prosecutor’s office. The investigation stalled until the arrest of the victim’s former companion. The man, employed in logistics, was arrested in Avignon on Wednesday June 6. He claims his innocence. The bundle of clues and what they call charges are just impressions,” I am indignant Me Carmelo Vialette, I am an avocat.
He claims his innocence. The bundle of clues and what they call charges are just impressions,
Me Carmelo Vialette
Lawyer for the ex-companion of Marie-Pascale Sidolle
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“It’s an arrest by default”, adds the lawyer in an investigation that has been stagnating for a year.
Was the suspect identified by CCTV cameras as the driver of the car in which Marie-Pascale Sidolle left? “Identification is impossible due to the poor resolution of the recorded tape”, says counsel for the suspect. He will appeal the detention and file a motion for nullity in the coming week.
The ex-spouse of the victim had, according to our colleagues from the newspaper The Parisian, a solid alibi allowing him to be exonerated. He was at home at the time of the disappearance of Marie-Pascale Sidolle and would not have left it according to the surveillance cameras of his residence. An alibi today demolished by the latest investigations: he could have escaped from his home by an exit out of the field of these surveillance cameras.
Stéphanie Sidolle, the daughter of the victim and the main suspect, on the other hand, was delighted with this arrest on social networks. “After all this waiting!! Justice is finally done for my mother. We loose nothing !! We continue !!! She deserves it !!! In his memory! May justice be done to him and let the truth come to light!!!!! wrote the young woman on Facebook.
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