Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès and members of his family.
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AFP / Judicial police
Agnès Dupont de Ligonnès and her children Arthur, Anne, Benoît and Thomas were murdered between April 3 and 5, 2011 in their house in Nantes.
Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès has not been spotted since April 15, 2011.
Despite the years, the investigation continued.
Including on the media side.
Ten years ago, almost to the day, the city of Nantes was shaken by one of the biggest French criminal cases.
Agnès Dupont de Ligonnès and her four children are found dead, buried under the terrace of their house.
The husband and father of a family is missing.
He was last seen on April 15, 2011 in Roquebrune-sur-Argens (Var).
Is he necessarily the author of the facts?
Is he on the run or has he committed suicide?
Update on ten years of investigation and disappointed leads.
September 3, 2011:
“In view of the catastrophic state of his finances, in view of his state of mind in the days or weeks preceding these assassinations, in view of the total absence of traces of the person concerned despite the intense work of squaring and police cross-checking, the hypothesis of suicide, without being at all certain, is the most probable ”, estimates the public prosecutor of Nantes, Xavier Ronsin.
Prosecutor Brigitte Lamy, who succeeded her, will express the same conviction
April 16, 2013:
Wanted for two years, Claudia, a former mistress of Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès is finally auditioned in Nantes.
This German had shared a love affair with XDDL in the 1980s, just after the latter got engaged to his future wife Agnes.
Shortly before the five-fold homicide, the father of the family had resumed contact with her.
But his testimony will do nothing.
May 2, 2013:
About fifty gendarmes and firefighters specializing in climbing are mobilized for intensive research in the Massif des Maures, in particular in the old lead mines of Pic Martin (Var), a perfect place to hide.
Investigators believe there is an interesting track.
In vain.
April 28, 2015
: Human bones and some objects (2011 invoice, newspaper, etc.) are found in a forest near Fréjus (Var).
The DNA will establish a few days later that they do not belong to Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès.
Our file on the Ligonnès affair
July 24, 2015:
A journalist working for Agence France Presse in Nantes receives a handwritten letter signed Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès in which it is written “I am still alive.
From there until this hour ”.
A photo of Arthur and Benoît accompanies the mail.
After investigation, the police believe that it is probably a forgery.
January 9, 2018:
The police intervene in the Saint-Désert-des-Carmes monastery (Var) where two witnesses claim to have seen a monk strongly resembling Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès.
The media send reporters there.
It was in fact a double.
As for the excavations carried out in the monastery, they did not yield anything.
March 2, 2018:
Death of Michel Rétif, a close friend of Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès.
Sick, this former salesman chose to end his life.
He had met XDDL in the south of France and had made several trips to the United States with him.
He also had an open affair with his wife Agnes.
Michel Rétif was living in Lunel (Hérault) at the time of the five-fold assassination.
But he spoke on the phone with the prime suspect three days later.
Then he moved to the Var, near Roquebrune-sur-Argens, exactly when XDDL was last seen.
Investigators will never know if this essential witness had revealed all his secrets.
October 11, 2019:
Following a report, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès is spotted at the end of the day by the police at the Parisian airport of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle before boarding but they do not have time to intervene and warn Interpol.
On his arrival in Glasgow, he was arrested, and according to the English police, his fingerprints match.
A search was immediately carried out at what would be his home, in Limay, in the Yvelines.
The media only talk about it all night long, the audience is stunned.
In fact, it was not him at all but a certain Guy Joao who did not really look like him.
The fiasco will be confirmed mid-morning on October 12.
January 18, 2020:
Emmanuel Teneur, another close friend of Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, in turn dies, victim of a heart attack.
This loyal and generous friend followed the Ligonnès family in most of their moves.
He lived in Nantes in April 2011 and entered the family home a few days after the tragedy.
He knew everything about the fugitive: his debts, his mistresses, his rifle ... Despite searches and several hearings, the investigators never found any element showing that he could have been involved in the crimes or in the escape of Xavier Dupont from Ligonnès.
July 1, 2020:
A television documentary on the case airs on Netflix as part of the
Unsolved mysteries
series
.
The episode fascinates in Canada and the United States.
To the point that several testimonies claiming to have seen a man resembling Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès were then transmitted to the authorities.
None has yet been confirmed.
But the producer hopes that this broadcast can relaunch the investigation in North America, a territory well known to XDDL.
July 23, 2020:
Society
magazine
publishes a very long investigation into the case.
The second part comes out on August 6.
No big revelation on the menu but unpublished testimonies and many details, sometimes sulphurous, from the investigation file.
The success is immediate "close to madness" considers even the editor of the magazine.
The two numbers are stormed in newsstands.
Almost 400,000 copies of the magazine will be sold.
The investigation was finally republished in book form on December 9, 2020. It will even soon be adapted into an audiovisual series in collaboration with the production company Federation Entertainment.
Justice
Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès case: "A blank page on which everyone projects their fantasies", considers the former prosecutor of Nantes
Series
Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès case: The investigation of "Society" soon to be adapted in series
Assassination
Justice
Crime
Run
Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès
Nantes