Dupont de Ligonnès affair: one of his friends "convinced" that he is "still alive"

INTERVIEW

Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès may well be the most wanted man in France, for Bruno de Stabenrath, he remains Xavier, his old friend in Terminale.

Almost 10 years after the five-fold murder, the one who presents himself as a relative of the father of the family publishes

at Gallimard

, where he recounts his research efforts, his misunderstandings and his assumptions.

"I want to move the lines. This book will wake up the conscience. People know things and they must speak", affirms Bruno of Stabenrath Wednesday on Europe 1.

"He is still alive, I am convinced"

At the announcement of the disappearance of the Dupont de Ligonnès family in April 2011, he first believed, like many at the time, in a somewhat hasty departure on a trip.

"And then we found the bodies ..." he recalls.

The wife of his friend, Agnès, as well as their four children were buried under a cement screed, in the garden of their Nantes house.

Then began the hunt for the husband, whom everything has accused since.

"He is still alive, I am convinced. He is not a man to kill himself", supports Bruno de Stabenrath.

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After leaving Nantes, we only know that Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès took the road to Roquebrune-sur-Agens.

The police are losing track here.

For Bruno de Stabenrath, Dupont de Ligonnès, a "chess player", only went there to cover things up.

He would then have taken a train to Paris and then a connection to Holland.

In Rotterdam, he would have embarked on a freight freighter and to cross the Strait of Gibraltar.

Today, Bruno Stabenrath advances, he could be hiding in the "three border zone", between Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

"In case of danger, he would only have a few kilometers to go to change country."

"He loved Agnès, he adored his children"

Borrowing from the lexicon of criminology, he points to an "altruistic" crime.

"A year and a half before the fact, he knows he is going through the wall. He believes that killing his family is the best solution for them, to save them shame and dishonor."

Dupont de Ligonnès had been encountering serious money problems for months, which he carefully hid from his family.

"But I know from his confidences that he loved Agnès, that he adored her children." 

In the last chapter of his book, Bruno de Stabenrath addresses his friend directly.

"I might be candid, but I wish he could hear my voice."