In front of the Pôle emploi de Valence, January 28, 2021, where a counselor was shot dead in the chest.

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P. Desmazes / AFP

  • In the aftermath of the two murders in Valence and Guilherand-Granges, in Auvergne Rhône-Alpes, investigations are underway on possible links with the death of a HRD in the Grand-Est region.

  • The 39-year-old mother was found dead in her car at her workplace, possibly the victim of several gunshots.

  • Several similarities and elements prompted investigators to verify the possible link between these cases.

Strong similarities that quickly intrigued investigators and justice.

In the aftermath of the death of a Pôle Emploi advisor from Valence (Drôme) and a human resources manager from Guilherand-Granges (Ardèche), shot dead by a suspect arrested, investigations are underway on possible reconciliations with the death of a HR Director in Grand-Est.

On Tuesday, this 39-year-old woman, head of human resources at the Knauf company in Wolfgantzen, in the Haut-Rhin, was found by her colleagues, lifeless in her car, parked in the company's parking lot.

An autopsy is to be performed this Friday, but according to the first elements reported by the press the victim, mother of two children was shot dead while leaving work.

A HRD also attacked but unharmed

This homicide was followed by the assault of a man, also HRD, attacked at his home in Wattwiller, in the same department, by an armed man who fired but missed him before fleeing in a red car.

The same color as the suspect from Valencia.

Beyond this element, the profession of the victims, similar to that of the 53-year-old employee killed on Thursday in Guilherand-Granges, necessarily questions the investigators, as well as the place of the facts.

The suspect arrested in Valence, an automotive engineer currently unemployed, lived in the Drôme but now lives in Nancy, 170 km from Wolfgantzen where the mother of 39 years was shot.

But for now, any reconciliation between these cases remains premature, according to the public prosecutor of Valencia.

“Nothing has yet been proven,” said Alex Perrin on Thursday, joined in his caution by his counterpart from Colmar, Catherine Sorita-Minard.

"The investigators are working on possible reconciliations given several elements and similarities that attract attention, such as the procedure, the profession of the victims, or the proximity of time and place for the two acts committed in the Haut-Rhin. ”, However indicated the magistrate.

Premeditated acts?

Thursday, the prosecutor of Valence opened an investigation for “assassinations”, entrusted to the Drôme branch of the judicial police of Lyon.

The suspect's accommodation and car in Nancy were searched and the man, unknown to the justice system until then, is being heard in police custody.

Thursday, when the Pôle emploi de Valence agency had just opened, he entered, alone and armed, and spoke to a counselor.

"Very quickly, he fired once with a weapon," said the public prosecutor of Valencia to the media.

Hit in the thorax, this 53-year-old counselor, mother of two, died after an unsuccessful attempt at resuscitation.

Then the suspect crossed the Rhône and went ten kilometers away, driving his red car, to the Faun company, where he worked from 2008 to 2010. He asked to see the person in charge and then did fire, twice, on the HRD, a mother of 51 years.

Injured to the face and abdomen, the latter succumbed at the scene.

The 40-year-old was arrested shortly after while trying to force a police blockade on the Mistral bridge leading to the center of Valencia.

For the time being, nothing is known about his motivations and the reasons that led him to target these two women.

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  • Lyon

  • Investigation

  • Strasbourg

  • Police

  • Assassination

  • Valence

  • Miscellaneous