Axelle Dorier, 22, died on July 19, 2020 in Lyon after being hit by a car and dragged 807 meters.
The driver of the vehicle and his passenger will be judged from Tuesday before the assizes of the Rhône.
On the eve of the trial, Axelle's family confided in 20 Minutes.
Since July 19, 2020, Pierre Dorier, who "didn't want a cat" at home, took Olly under his wing.
Today, the little animal is all he has left of his daughter Axelle.
“When I went to her house, he was lying on her bed.
He looked at me as if he knew she would never be there again.
He came to me.
He knew he was going to go back with me.
And he left with me…”
Axelle would have been 23 the next day.
Only, the young woman who had gone to celebrate the event with her twin brothers – born two years and a day after her – as well as their friends, had her life cut down by a driver.
The evening turned into a nightmare.
Hit by a car on the heights of Fourvière in Lyon, the victim was dragged 807 meters without having any chance of getting out.
The driver of the Golf who overturned it and his passenger will be tried from Tuesday before the Rhône Assize Court.
The first will appear for "violence with the use or threat of a weapon resulting in death without the intention of giving it", the second for "non-assistance to a person in danger".
“For Axelle, we remain standing”
"For Axelle, we stay up," says Sophie, her very moved mother.
The hearing looks difficult.
"We're going to hear things we don't want to hear.
But all we want is for the truth to be told”.
Because until then, the family is hardly convinced by the explanations of the two defendants.
Nor by their apologies.
Panicked, Youcef Tebbal maintains from the start that he did not see Axelle go under his wheels, nor felt that he was rolling over him and even less that he had dragged him over such a distance.
“Axelle's life was of no importance to them.
They wanted to leave the place at all costs and they did it, ”supports Pierre Dorier.
By her side, Theo, one of the twins, struggles to hide his emotion.
But wants to tell in detail this nightmare night.
An evening which was announced however under the best auspices.
Placed on the lawns of the park of Fourvière, the small group of friends "had fun".
“We were coming out of confinement, we had brought drinks, we weren’t disturbing anyone.
We even launched small Chinese lanterns into the sky,” he says.
But shortly before 3:30 am, the evening changes.
A Twingo, aboard which were four young women, left the park and accidentally crushed the dog of a friend of the Dorier family.
Furious, the latter rushes to the car to do battle with the driver.
He is followed by a handful of friends, while others try to calm things down and make them come to their senses.
Meanwhile, Axelle calls the police.
Thrown into the gutter
This is where the Golf comes in.
“They wanted to get out of the park and said they didn't care about the dog.
They rolled down the windows and were threatening, verbally aggressive.
One wanted to leave because he was "loaded", he didn't want to run into the police," says Théo.
Tempers flare.
"They told us: 'If you don't let us go, we will crush you'", continues the young man.
The driver revs the engine of his car, the tires screech on the asphalt.
Everyone moves away.
The car drives towards a dead end, rolls over the foot of a friend, makes a U-turn, goes up the sidewalk and hits the same young man on the way back, who falls unconscious against the wall.
A few meters further, Axelle stands in their way to tell them to stop.
A little further on, Theo watches the scene, powerless.
"I saw my sister's red dress for the last time," he confides as his eyes fill modestly with tears.
“They went full speed ahead.
I saw smoke, I didn't understand at the time that it was the tires that were heating up.
I also saw a huge trail on the ground…” Axelle's blood.
"I can hear the girls in the Twingo screaming 'They ran it over, they took off with it.'
At that moment, that's the only thing that resonates in my head, I don't want to believe it.
Petrified at first, the boy then desperately chases the car that he will never be able to catch up with.
Sophie is awakened in the middle of the night by Theo.
"He said to me 'Mom, Axelle has disappeared, she has been kidnapped'.
I get dressed, I don't understand”.
There, she finds Evan, her other son, prostrate: “Axelle is dead”.
He has seen it all.
“For me, it was not possible.
I was hoping to be told that she had been taken to the hospital”.
The body of the young woman is however a few meters away but her mother, blocked by the device put in place by the police, cannot see her.
“I stayed there until 7:30 a.m., I was cold.
I saw that streak on the ground, I knew it was blood.
I knew it was Axelle's.
She was in the gutter, they didn't have the slightest respect for her, ”she continues, swallowing back her tears with difficulty.
A young woman “sparkling” and “filled with kindness”
United, the Dorier family hears at the bar who the young woman really was.
A “joyful”, “bubbly”, “filled with kindness” person who “cared” for others.
If she had chosen the profession of beautician, it was above all to help people in difficulty.
“She wanted to specialize in socio-aesthetics to soothe the sick, to relieve those who have heavy treatments”, confides her mother, her eyes misty.
“She loved nature and animals,” continues her father Pierre.
She often took in cats and then gave them to her grandparents, neighbours, godmother or friends.
And to tell a touching anecdote.
“Once, I was waiting for her to eat but she was late in coming.
I called her to find out where she was.
She replied that she had met some homeless people and that she had offered to watch their dog while they went to buy food.
She was like that, Axelle, she had a huge heart.
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