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This would be the epilogue of one of the most incredible criminal cases of the last decades. Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, suspected of having killed his wife and four children in 2011 in Nantes and actively sought since, was arrested Friday at Glasgow Airport, Scotland. An "anonymous denunciation" allowed the arrest of a suspect.
He was spotted by the police at Paris Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport before boarding, but the police did not have time to intervene and warned Interpol. The suspect traveled with a passport under another identity. Upon his arrival in Glasgow, the man was checked, and according to the English police, his fingerprints match.
The public prosecutor of Nantes, Pierre Sennès, however called Friday night to "caution", the DNA has still not confirmed its identity.
The infos to remember:
- A man identified as Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès was arrested Friday at Glasgow Airport, from Paris
- An "anonymous denunciation" allowed his arrest
- The man had a passport in the name of Guy Joao. According to one of the neighbors of this inhabitant of Yvelines, the suspect arrested can not be Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès.
- Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès has been actively sought after since 2011. He is suspected of having killed his entire family
A testimony could put everything in question
According to our information, the suspect was traveling with a passport under another identity, under the name of Guy Joao, who had declared the loss of his passport in 2014. A search was underway Friday night in Limay, Yvelines, which could be a point of departure in France by Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. This address, in Yvelines, appeared on the passport with which he traveled.
The police were still present Saturday morning, but for one of Guy Joao's neighbors, there can be no doubt: impossible that his neighbor and friend is Xavier Dupont de Ligonès. According to him, Guy Joao and his wife made regular trips to Scotland, and according to this neighbor, this arrest is a mistake. "We've been to her marriage in Scotland for thirty years, it's absurd!" Even with plastic surgery it's not possible, "he says at the microphone of Europe 1.
According to France Info, the suspect was subjected to "cosmetic surgery". French investigators were en route Friday night for Scotland, where they will have to confirm his identity through DNA comparisons. According to Le Parisien , the man would remain silent for the moment.
the suspect may have spent most of his run in the UK, according to some sources.
An "anonymous denunciation" allowed the arrest
The public prosecutor of Nantes, Pierre Sennès, called Friday night to the "prudence". "Tomorrow (Saturday NDLR) there are teams of investigators of the national service of the search for the fugitives and judicial police of Nantes who will go to Scotland", specified the public prosecutor to AFP. "They will do checks in Scotland with the person who was arrested at Glasgow Airport to ensure that it is Mr. Dupont de Ligonnès," he added. "So it is appropriate pending these audits to be careful," warned the prosecutor. "There is a suspicion on the fingerprints but it is under verification, being confirmed, and that is why the investigators are leaving tomorrow in Scotland," he added.
According to a source close to the investigation, the arrest was allowed by "an anonymous denunciation". This "information" came too late for an intervention on French soil, but French investigators warned the Scottish police that he was on the plane.
>> READ - A childhood friend of Xavier Dupont Ligonnès testifies: "I knew he was alive, I was sure"
Eight years of research and mysteries
For eight years, this man was actively sought after. On several occasions, reports were received by the investigators, whose thousands of written reports failed to say whether he was dead or alive, whether he had been able to organize his escape or if he had committed suicide. This central character of one of the most mysterious criminal puzzles of recent decades was last seen in April 2011: on April 14, he was filmed by the camera of a cash machine, and on the 15th, he had He left a hotel with a case on his back that could contain a rifle.
Six days later, the bodies of his wife and four children were discovered, buried under the terrace of their house in Nantes. Agnès Dupont de Ligonnès, 48, and her four children, Arthur, 21, Thomas, 18, Anne, 16, and Benoît, 13, were killed at 22 Long Rifle, presumably two weeks earlier, between 3 and on the 5th of April, at least two bullets in the head. With six days behind the father, the investigators had then pulled the thread of his schedule, without breaking the riddle. Despite an international arrest warrant issued against him, he had never been found. Until, then, this Friday evening of October.