Disappearance of little Mathis Jouanneau in 2011: 13 years later, the child's father indicted for murder

Thirteen years after the disappearance of little Mathis, 8 years old, his father Sylvain Jouanneau was indicted for murder. ARCHIVED PHOTOMONTAGE

Twist in the case of little Mathis who has been missing since 2011: his father Sylvain Jouanneau, sentenced in 2015 to 20 years in prison for kidnapping and sequestration, was indicted for murder, notably due to the discovery DNA from the boy in his car.

Already sentenced in 2015 to 20 years of imprisonment for having kidnapped and kidnapped his son Mathis, who has never been found since his disappearance in 2011, Sylvain Jouanneau, the father of the little boy, was indicted for the murder of his son on April 19, 2024.

This former divorced executive turned mason had never brought Mathis back to his mother on September 4, 2011, in Caen, as he should have done at the end of his custody rights for the week -end.

DNA found in his car

He had claimed during his trial to have entrusted it to third parties abroad after having spent "one month" with him, without ever saying to whom he had given his child, wishing to "protect".

"In 2015, at the assizes, he claimed that Mathis, when he turned 18, three years ago, would have reappeared and said that he was very good, that his father had made a good decision" hellip; However, we never heard from him", Me Aline Lebret, lawyer for the young boy's mother, told AFP.

Second element explaining the indictment for murder, according to the lawyer, the discovery of "the presence of Mathis's DNA on the trunk mat " in the 206 of the accused found in 2011 in Lahonce in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, "which is still disturbing".

"I have always refused to let this matter stop (in 2015 after the trial at the assizes) and I have, since 2016, made requests for important investigative acts which have been carried out. The DNA analyzes arrived a year and a half ago, and then by the time we compared them to the IRCGN (Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie)…", she added, saying she had "no doubt" about Sylvain's guilt Jouanneau. Contacted by the AFP, his lawyer, Me Félix Gluckstein, did not wish to comment immediately.

Problems of inconsistency

An investigation for homicide, separate from the kidnapping and sequestration case, was opened in parallel to shed light on the disappearance of the minor and so that the investigation could continue after the judgment at the assizes.

"Incarcerated for his 2015 conviction and released in May 2028, he was placed in pre-trial detention under a criminal committal warrant, this detention is motivated by the fact that he could benefit sentence adjustments before May 2028 in connection with his first conviction, indicated the same judicial source.

"There are issues of inconsistency, the fact that it was the last one to have seen him alive, the fact that several people saw him alone after having removed him or that the child's DNA was found on the floor mat of the trunk of the car he was driving from. rsquo;is served. This suggests that a body was lying inside", indicated this source, adding that this DNA analysis "n&rsquo ;had not been carried out" before.

This Tuesday, May 7, the investigating chamber of the Caen Court of Appeal, seized by the accused who contested his pre-trial detention, confirmed his placement in detention in this aspect of the case.

In 2015, the police unsuccessfully launched a call for witnesses with a portrait of the aged child. Mathis' mother, Nathalie Barré, had written a book entitled "He took my son from me".