Xavier Dupont De Ligonnès and his wife -

Private De Ligo / FSMADJA / SIPA

  • Agnès Dupont de Ligonnès and her children Arthur, Anne, Benoît and Thomas were killed ten years ago, between April 3 and 5, 2011, in their house in Nantes.

  • The main suspect, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, has not been spotted since April 15, 2011. He is one of the most wanted men in France.

  • During one night, in October 2019, the police and the media believed that the fugitive had finally been arrested.

Information has been circulating in the newsrooms for a few minutes.

But this October 11, 2019, it was finally

Le Parisien

who was the first to publish the information on its website.

Suspected of having killed and buried his wife and their four children in his garden in 2011, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès was reportedly arrested in Glasgow, Scotland.

The one who has since vanished into the wild would have been denounced by an anonymous source to the local police, who were waiting for him at the airport.

Quickly, a certain effervescence seized the media which, after having obtained confirmation of this arrest from several sources, made their headlines.

But the runaway ends the next day around 12:30 p.m.

DNA analyzes of the suspect confirm that he is not the most wanted man in France but a simple retiree who was joining his Scottish wife.

Formal Scottish policemen

The police officers who worked on this case are divided into two groups: those who believe "XDDL" on the run, those who are convinced that he committed suicide.

Among the latter, some ended up believing, for a few hours, that they had made a mistake.

That the suspect had managed to escape them and rebuild his life under a false identity.

It must be said that their Scottish counterparts were formal: yes, it is he, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès.

He would travel on a fake passport under the name Guy Joao.

But his prints, they assure the French, betrayed the fugitive.

Besides, he still smokes the same brand of cigarettes, Lucky Strikes.

"We still have to wait for the results of the DNA analysis, but the paws [fingerprints] have spoken", assured us then, during this evening, a source close to the case.

"Everyone had the same source"

Guy Joao, a former Renault worker, was exposed on "Crime Stoppers", a website that receives reports from anonymous citizens, for a reason investigators still do not explain.

Earlier in the day of October 11, the Scottish police officers warned their French counterparts via the Europol agency that the one they believe to be XDDL is about to embark at Roissy.

Arrested when he got off the plane, he was placed in a cell for 26 hours.

His photo and address are sent to Nanterre, at the headquarters of the DCPJ.

Already, investigators notice that the man does not "resemble either near or far" to Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, as a police source told us at the time.

In addition, the search of his home in the Yvelines, Limay, "begins to raise doubts", remembers

20 Minutes

a good connoisseur of the case.

Guy Joao's neighbors swear to the police present that they are on the wrong track.

Guy Joao, interviewed by M6 in January 2019. - M6

For their part, the Scots take "a lot of time" to transmit to French investigators the fingerprints of the arrested man.

Around "10:30 p.m. or 11 p.m.", doubt entered the minds of the police: wouldn't their counterparts be mistaken?

From now on, the British agents affirm that the prints correspond only "partially" to those of the father of the Nantes family.

Too late, the media machine got carried away.

Several police sources have already confirmed to journalists the arrest of XDDL based on information given by the Scots.

“Everyone had the same source.

But as it was adulterated, everyone was smoked, “says the investigator today.

A late judicial communication

For its part, the Nantes prosecutor's office, a jurisdiction in which the case has been investigated for more than eight years, is slow to communicate.

It was not until 12:26 am, on October 12, that an AFP dispatch fell in which the public prosecutor, Pierre Sennès, called for “caution”.

"There are teams of investigators from the national fugitive search service and the Nantes judicial police who are going to go to Scotland", then explains the magistrate.

"There is a suspicion on the fingerprints but it is being verified, being confirmed, and that is why the investigators are leaving for Scotland tomorrow," he adds.

Before emphasizing: “While awaiting these verifications, we should be careful.

But at this late hour, it is no longer possible to stop the presses that print the newspapers.

The day after the arrest, in the middle of the day, DNA analyzes carried out by French justice experts on the man arrested in Glasgow show that it was not Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès.

The mystery of his disappearance will therefore continue for a long time to come.

Guy Joao, he still does not know the reason for which he was denounced.

"We have not the slightest idea, we have no enemy, we are quiet retirees", confided to M6, in January 2020, the one who was "impressed" by this media outburst that he did not “Don't understand too much”.

A police source interviewed by

20 Minutes

nevertheless sees a positive point in this miss.

“Dozens of French police officers were mobilized all night to carry out checks.

It proves to people that an investigation is not being abandoned.

"

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  • Scotland

  • Society

  • Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès

  • Federal police

  • Crime

  • Run

  • Nantes

  • Police

  • Disappearance