Aurélie Vaquier found in a concrete sarcophagus in Bédarieux: Samire Lymani has seven days of trial to prove his innocence

The couple has been living in Bédarieux (Hérault) for only a few weeks. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

The Hérault assizes will judge from this Tuesday, January 9, Samire Lymani, the ex companion of Aurélie Vaquier for "murder of a spouse". The accused claims that another individual committed the crime. This is the summary of the case.

The trial into the death of Aurélie Vaquier, found dead and buried at her home in Bédarieux, in the Hérault hinterland, on April 7, 2021, begins this Tuesday, January 9 before the court d'asses de l'Hérault. The accused, Samire Lymani, 41, is tried during a seven-day hearing during which he will try to prove his innocence, which he has proclaimed since the discovery of the body. Tried for "murder of a spouse", he faces life imprisonment.

Who was the victim ? Aurélie Vaquier, then aged 38, was a young woman full of life, a follower of spirituality and who sold her esoteric stones and homemade shampoos on the markets,  when she mysteriously disappears at the end of January 2021.

She disappears without alerting her grandmother or taking her cat

She no longer answers the phone, no longer expresses herself on social networks, has not warned her grandmother, and she has not taken his car, nor his bank card, nor his cat or even his glasses. Beatings and calls for witnesses change nothing for weeks.

Her companion Samire Lymani, with whom Aurélie had lived since November 2020, claims that she left him a note explaining that she was going to rest for a few days . But the message is surprisingly riddled with spelling errors, which she is not accustomed to. Furthermore, Lymani took almost a month before reporting his disappearance to the gendarmerie and he participated very little in the search.

On April 7, 2021, the gendarmes from the research section reinvested the couple's house with sonar to inspect the house. In one of the rooms, under some belongings, a platform, carpet and parquet flooring, a recent concrete slab was found. Inside, a tarpaulin in which Aurélie Vaquier is wrapped, who still had her slippers on her feet.

The autopsy reveals asphyxia, undoubtedly resulting from a neck lock but also this terrible hypothesis: the victim was perhaps still alive when she was buried.

According to the accused, a third person was behind the crime

Samire Lymani is immediately taken into custody, indicted and incarcerated. However, he swears: he has nothing to do with it. His only explanation is that someone came to their home while he was away in Ain with his family, killing Aurélie before locking her in this concrete sarcophagus. .

But many disturbing elements incriminate the companion for the accusation, on his statements of variable geometry, the inconsistencies of such a scenario of a third individual or even his attitudes. According to relatives of the deceased, who speak of femicide, the couple, who were carrying out work, experienced more downs than ups.

The verdict is expected on January 17.