April 21, 2011, start of the Dupont de Ligonnès affair

• On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, "20 Minutes" shares with you the most striking memories of its journalists.

• Today, the start of the Dupont de Ligonnès affair in April 2011.

Among the many criminal cases covered by

for twenty years, the Dupont de Ligonnès case is, without doubt, the most striking.

And the most followed.

The violence of the facts and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the father of the family have both horrified and fascinated the readers.

This case started for me with a very specific memory.

On April 21, 2011, at the end of the morning, I was at the Nantes courthouse to attend a press conference by the prosecutor at the time, Xavier Ronsin.

We had had many exchanges with him the previous weeks concerning the assassination of Laetitia Perrais by Tony Meilhon which had already upset the whole of France.

This time, we were all convinced that the prosecutor was simply going to call for witnesses after the surprising disappearance, which had just been reported to us, of a family of six from Nantes.

But Xavier Ronsin is late.

The minutes tick by in the meeting room, we grow impatient, we also perceive an agitation in the neighboring offices.

The prosecutor finally appears, with a serious face, and announces the discovery of at least one body under the terrace.

Stupefaction.

He will explain, quite transparently, having been warned five minutes before by the police commissioner.

The excavations continued all day at the home of the Ligonnès.

I remember this big black tarpaulin hastily stretched to prevent the dozens of onlookers and journalists from observing the comings and goings of the forensic police, then the exits of the bodies from the street.

I still have the chilling memory of the five mortuary vans lined up next to each other in front of the little Saint-Félix church seven days later.

Of this huge crowd filling the streets to express their emotion at the funeral.

From the amazement of the classmates and teachers of the victims I had met.

I also remember these improvised investigators on the Web, in search of the slightest element of the digital past of the protagonists, a new phenomenon at the time.

Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, he has not left a trace since April 15, 2011. The feeling that he would inevitably be caught has faded over the false leads.

Is he dead ?

Is he alive?

Everyone has a theory.

I discussed with several specialists of the file having developed radically opposite opinions.

Impossible, in these circumstances, to forge a personal conviction, even today.

On the other hand, I am convinced, like Xavier Ronsin, that we will know the truth sooner or later.

Justice

Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès case: The disturbing similarities with the John List case

Nantes

Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès case: "Since we are not provided with proof of his guilt, it means that he is not guilty"

• Pays de la Loire

• Disappearance

• Homicide

• Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes

• Nantes

• Miscellaneous facts

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