"He talks to his bike": in Rambervillers, the teenager suspected of killing a girl alarmed the inhabitants

Tatiana Geiselmann, edited by Alexandre Dalifard / Photo credit: JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN / AFP 19:54 pm, April 26, 2023

Stupor in the Vosges. On Tuesday afternoon, the lifeless body of a 5-year-old girl was found in an apartment in Rambervillers. A 16-year-old boy is currently in police custody and is, for now, the main suspect. For facts dating back to February 2022, the young man had already been indicted for rape and sexual assault on a minor of 15 years. Europe 1 met several residents of the commune who knew the main suspect.

Children followed by the adolescent

All the people crossed in Rambervillers know the teenager where have, at least, already seen him wandering in the town. Some had heard of this indictment for rape, sexual assault and forcible confinement, like Léa, 18 years old. "Everyone knows it, it's word of mouth. I had heard that he had also tied up the child of a woman we know in the forest," she said. Off the microphone, several children say they were followed by the young man, in the street or in shops.

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Many feared it, says Lucas, a high school student in Rambervillers. "Sometimes he would come to the little park. We didn't want to hang out with him too much because we already knew he wasn't too normal. We know that he had small problems, "says the young man at the microphone of Europe 1. Most of the people we met described the young man as being a little disturbed, as indicated by the testimony of Jennifer, one of his neighbors. "He's talking to his bike. He leaves him and tells him to wait five minutes because he's coming back." However, according to the prosecutor of Epinal, a psychiatric expertise had previously been ordered and it concluded that there were no mental disorders.