INTERVIEW
An edition almost as untraceable as Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. Two weeks ago, the magazine Society, of the So Press group, came out the first number of a two-part survey, devoted to the famous news item. A victim of its own success, not found in newsagents for many readers. The rest is coming out on newsstands this Thursday, priced at 3.90 euros. And this week, the team has planned more: more than 100,000 copies in first printing to keep everyone happy. "As much on the first part we were obliged to give the main lines of the case, (...) as much the whole second part is 99% new, of revelations", confides Franck Annese, co-founder and leader of the group So Press.
A news item that fascinates
The investigation is dense: nearly 250,000 signs, which allow us to discover and dig new tracks on the mystery Dupont de Ligonnès, this father suspected of having killed his wife and their four children in 2011, who has since vanished. "It's a matter that really fascinates the French. There has been a lot of things done on Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès but each time it was a bit of repetition. There was a Netflix documentary recently which was very poor . This generated even more frustrations, "analyzes the leader of the press group. "We came out with a lot of new things to learn, and even more in the second part, it fueled the success."
>> READ ALSO - Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès: listen to the story of the case, by Christophe Hondelatte
Regular readers of Society know, the investigation is an editorial "chestnut". Four journalists have been mobilized, assiduously, for four years in the footsteps of the Nantes suspect. "Disappearing in 2020 is not like disappearing in 1975. We tend to consider that with the means we have today, with social networks, the people who film all this becomes complicated to disappear and yet it has disappeared ", decrypts Franck Annese. "Our logic is stumbling over something and we want to solve this problem."
New avenues to explore
In this second part, of 42 pages, the journalists question new witnesses and dig new avenues, especially family ones. "We are really following the investigation. We understand who the various suspects of complicity are, we also learn something quite strong: Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès was not content to kill five people, he did more harm than This. Relatives have suffered tremendously to the point of committing suicide. There is very strong collateral damage, "says Franck Annese. A mechanic, close to the father of the family, was also questioned, even though the police never took his testimony. "He's going to be questioned," jokes the co-founder of So Press.
>> READ ALSO - Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès case: all those times when we thought we could find him
If Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès has not yet been found, neither by the police, nor by the journalists of Society , "we are getting closer", smiles Franck Annese. "We play our role as journalists, we try to advance the investigation as much as we can but we are not police officers, we do not have the power of justice. When we have leads, witnesses, we dig but we are not going to lock people up in a cellar and force them to talk to us, "he recalls.