A French cold case: In October 2005, Marine Boisserac was found stabbed to death at her family home of Chazay d'Azergues. More than 20 years later, no arrests have been made in her case. Who killed Marine Boisserac?
Hello everyone, I recently discovered this subreddit, and this is my first post here. I am French and I want to bring light to French cold cases. Today, I want to share with you the unresolved murder of 20 year-old Marine Boisseranc.
The victim
Marine Boisseranc was a 20 year-old student living at her parents' home in Chazay d'Azergues, Rhône, not far away from the city of Lyon. She had two brothers who were also living in the family house. At the time of her death, she had recently split up with her boyfriend, who had troubles coming to terms with the breakup.
The murder
On October 11, 2005, Marine finished school earlier than usual and was home during the afternoon. At around 5PM, Marine's father came back home from work only to find his daughter's body lying behind the sofa in the living room. He called the family doctor, who lived 300 meters away from the family home. The doctor pronounced Marine dead at the scene. She had been stabbed 12 times in the abdomen and the back. There were no signs of sexual assault.
Investigation and clues
The murderer did not leave a lot of clues behind. The investigators found a shoe print (Nike Air sneakers in size 43FR or 10US). They were also able to extract unknown male DNA from Marine's clothing. It was also determined that Marine called a mechanic with her cell phone around the estimated time of her murder. She already had been to this mechanic to fix her car before and probably had his number saved on her phone. Investigators deduced that, in a frenzy, Marine called a random number on her phone whilst being assaulted. When questioned about the call, the mechanic explained that the only thing he heard was the voice of a man ordering Marine to hang up. Marine's phone was never found despite extensive research. The knife used to kill Marine was also never found. The house was not broken into, which seems to indicate that Marine probably knew her killer. Her dad explained that she was a very cautious person and that it would be out of character for her to open the door to strangers. Investigators tried to paint a portrait of Marine's killer : he would be a man, right-handed, around 180 cm (5'9) tall, and 43FR (10US) shoe size.
Suspects
The ex-boyfriend
One of the first suspects was Marine's ex-boyfriend, Ludovic. He was troubled by their recent breakup and was also one of the only few people to know that Marine did not have classes that afternoon. In March 2006, he was held in custody for 33 hours and questioned about Marine's murder. Without further proof, Ludovic was quickly released. Five years later, in 2011, Ludovic was arrested a second time at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport. He had just come back from a trip in Malaysia. What prompted the second arrest was the testimony of two young boys who claimed that, at around 5PM the day of Marine's murder, they saw a man fitting Ludovic's description running around the family's house. Ludovic hired a lawyer and was able to provide an alibi. The day of the murder, he was in an other city (Villefranche-sur Saône) and gave investigators old receipts from a supermarket he bought magazines from that day. He was released a second time after spending 19 days in custody.
The homeless man
In October 2006, Emmanuel, a 32 year-old homeless man who was living at a homeless shelter not far away from the family home at the time of the murder, was arrested by police. He had previously been sentenced for theft and assault and had a strong interest in knives. After three months in custody, he was released. Investigators had no proof linking him to the murder, and his shoes did not match the shoe print found at the scene. Marine's father thought that this lead was unlikely since his daughter was very cautious around strangers; she would not have let an unknown man enter their home.
Stéphane Moitoiret
In 2009, a woman contacted investigators, claiming that, the day of the murder, she saw a couple stealing not far away from Chazay d'Azergues. They were armed with a knife and fled the scene in a car. After seeing Stéphane Moitoiret and his partner Noella Hego in the news, she recognized them as the couple she saw fleeing in a car the day of Marine's murder. Stéphane Moitoiret stabbed an 11 year-old boy to death in 2008 and was already in police custody, waiting for trial, alongside Noella in 2009. Stéphane Moitoiret was a very psychologically unstable man who was diagnosed with multiple psychological disorders. The couple were known to be nomads and could have potentially been in the area at the time of the murder. Police took the lead seriously, but no proof linked Moitoiret to the crime, or even the area, except for the witness testimony. In 2024, Stéphane Moitoiret was ruled out as a suspect because his DNA did not match the DNA found on Marine's clothing.
Conclusion
This case is very troubling. Marine's family is not giving up and is still actively searching for her murderer. They are very brave, and I hope that they will have answers to their questions one day and that her killer will be brought to justice. I personally think that Marine's murderer was most likely someone that she knew and trusted enough to let them enter the house. I think it's weird that they did not compare the ex-boyfriend's DNA with the DNA found on her clothing the day she died (or maybe they did, but I couldn't find this information anywhere). Maybe they thought it would be irrelevant because, since they had been in a relationship, his DNA could have been found on her clothing without him having murdered her. I am not really sure, to be honest.
Sources
Articles
Wikipedia page (English translation available)
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meurtre_de_Marine_Boisseranc
A very thorough YouTube video