The home of Jérôme Gaillard, husband of Magali Blandin, in Montauban-de-Bretagne, west of Rennes.

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Mathieu Pattier / SIPA

  • Magali Blandin's lifeless body was discovered in Boisgervilly on Saturday, more than a month after she was killed.

  • Her husband, from whom she had been separated since September, eventually confessed to hitting her with a baseball bat after 29 hours in police custody.

  • The significant mobilization of the gendarmes and the alert launched by the husband complaining of an extortion accelerated this complex investigation.

The first time that we discussed the disappearance of Magali Blandin with Colonel Sébastien Jaudon, it was only a few days after the announcement of his disappearance.

The prosecution had just launched an appeal for witnesses and deemed the disappearance "very worrying".

The same day, the boss of the gendarmes of Ille-et-Vilaine sent more than 150 men around the home of Montfort-sur-Meu to try to find this mother of a family without history.

The latter did not show up for work on February 12 and was not present to pick up her children after school.

At this time of the investigation, only Jérôme Gaillard, and perhaps his parents and his neighbor, prosecuted for complicity in this affair described as "extraordinary", knew that Magali Blandin had died.

Favoring "no leads", the police had deployed colossal means to try to find the trace of the mother of the family.

For weeks, hundreds of gendarmes surveyed the surroundings of the home of the forty-something, multiplying the neighborhood surveys in search of clues, probing the waterways.

Divers, the nautical brigade, tracking dogs, helicopters, members of the army and many inhabitants of Montfort-sur-Meu have sought the trace of Magali Blandin, with the hope of finding her alive.

At the same time, around fifteen investigators from the Montfort brigade and the Rennes research section were working on the judicial aspect of the case.

Computers have been dissected, phone calls peeled.

"It is a dramatic affair which required exceptional means of research and investigation", recalls Colonel Jaudon.

Colonel Sébastien Jaudon addresses the population before a search operation in the town of Montfort-sur-Meu near Rennes, where Magali Blandin has disappeared.

- Mathieu Pattier / SIPA

At first, the investigations had revealed "no element associating the husband with this disappearance or suggesting his presence in Montfort-sur-Meu at the time of the facts".

But from the beginning of March, investigators scent the criminal trail.

The latter was confirmed when Jérôme Gaillard presented himself to the judge in the presence of his lawyer to evoke an attempted extortion of which he was a victim.

A proven fact, since several individuals of Georgian nationality tried to extract 15,000 euros from him for their silence and the destruction of an audio recording which incriminated him.

This “Georgian lead” seriously complicated the investigation.

But it also greatly advanced it.

By monitoring the Georgian community, the gendarmes detected the regular presence of a suspect near the accommodation of Magali Blandin.

Indicted for attempted murder in an organized gang, this man would have received 20,000 euros from Jérôme Gaillard to kill his wife.

When the Georgian track advances the investigation

What the husband probably did not imagine is that this denunciation would put investigators on his trail.

A "mistake" which greatly contributed to the discovery of the scenario of family criminal conspiracy.

“It was an accelerator.

Without this, it would undoubtedly have taken us several weeks or several months to elucidate this premeditated murder, ”admitted prosecutor Philippe Astruc.

Gendarmes are preparing for a search operation in the town of Montfort-sur-Meu near Rennes, where Magali Blandin has disappeared.

- Mathieu Pattier / SIPA

Placed in police custody on Thursday, Jérôme Gaillard will have taken 29 hours before cracking up in the face of investigators, as his lawyer Me Le Mintier informed.

Unmasked, he then explained everything: how he had contacted Georgians in November thanks to his neighbor, also indicted.

Then how he hid in front of Magali Blandin's apartment, after dropping their children off at school, watching for his victim to come out.

Then how he hit her twice with a bat, before returning the body and returning at nightfall to erase all traces, leaving the gendarmes without clues.

"There is only one culprit in this file"

On the night of Friday to Saturday, he finally indicated where the body of the mother of his four children was.

The suspect had buried it two kilometers from his home, under a layer of quicklime, supposed to accelerate the decomposition of the body.

"There is only one culprit in this case," said his lawyer.

His parents, aged 72 and 75, his neighbor, a 29-year-old Georgian, and three other people of Georgian nationality are also being prosecuted in this case.

The investigation is far from over.

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  • Violence against women

  • Gendarmerie

  • Investigation

  • Feminicide

  • Domestic violence

  • Murder

  • Reindeer

  • Miscellaneous

  • Assassination

  • Society