"I killed a woman.You might as well denounce me ”

Reading time: 5 min

Mathieu Danel has always been a smiling boy.At home, Vincent, his father, has photos of his child, photos "of a laughing child".Mathieu little appreciates that he is pointed out.It's his way of being and he is "like that".But when this Thursday, June 21, 2018, he appeared at the reception of the Montélimar police station, the police officer frown.Zigotos, the policeman probably saw a package in his career, but this guy seems to want to pay his head.

- I killed a woman, repeats Mathieu Danel smiling.- Sir, these are not things we joke with!

The 22 -year -old is not kidding.He killed a woman in Sommières two days ago.He specifies that he parked his car in the parking lot just in front of the police station.The police officer then leaves the modest building with blue windows located away from the city center, and heads for the vehicle.In daylight, he sees dark spots on a door, similar to blood.In the driver's side pocket shines a long blade of at least 25 centimeters.

The police officer returns, Mathieu Danel awaits him.He calls the Calvisson gendarmerie, on which the town of Sommières depends.In Calvisson, we call the Vauvert research brigade.Meanwhile, around the car, the officers observe the hunting dagger through the front window.They call the valence prosecutor's office, on which they themselves depend.The prosecutor confirms the opening of the preliminary investigation.Before hanging up, they evoke the hunting dagger in the poche void.This is not common, but can they search the vehicle before police custody?The prosecutor gives authorization.They notify Mathieu Danel his rights to Mathieu Danel.Open your car.Inside, the blade is clean.

At the Valence police station where he is placed in police custody, Mathieu Danel eats good appetite.We reiterate his rights to him.He does not wish to be assisted by a lawyer.He will tell them everything.Again, the official warns it: false statements would be very serious.Danel smiles.He will not make a false statement.

The day before, on June 19, 2018, he took a self-repellent in his car.He doesn't remember his first name.She told him, but he forgot.She was about thirty years old, mid-long, brown hair, and a black skirt.She went to Nîmes.Together, they stopped at a pizzeria in Sommières for dinner.They then walked in the surrounding area in favor of the night.The self -ower was a tourist guide, she told him the story of the corner.Then she asked him to leave her there.He offered to bring her to a hotel, she refused.It surprised him, but not disturbed.Going back to his car, he saw the hunting dagger in his stuck-up."This is where everything has set up," he retraces.In the darkness of the campaign, alone with an unknown, Mathieu Danel thought: “All the conditions are met.»»»»»»»»

"It is disappointed that his gesture did not give him any pleasure"»»»»»»»

C'était une question qui «l'obsédait un peu»»»»»»»» depuis un an.What is it to kill?What sensations does it give, to remove life?For him, there was only one way of knowing it.

He had arrived from the front.The self -repellent had not understood. Mathieu Danel lui avait simplement dit: «Rien de personnel»»»»»»»», avant de la poignarder au cou, à la tête, et pour finir, au thorax.He doesn't really remember his reaction. Il lui semble l'avoir entendu dire: «Je ne veux pas mourir»»»»»»»» ou «Je veux continuer à vivre»»»»»»»», mais cela ne l'avait pas arrêté.The act ended, he had resumed his car.He stopped to wash his hands on a highway area.He had taken the opportunity to wash the dagger.The next day, he had done nothing special.

In the end, Mathieu Danel had no pleasure from it.If he had appreciated the feeling of killing, he explains to the investigators, he would have continued and would not have surrendered.But he had found the "very neutral" experience»»»».No pride, no rise in adrenaline, no feeling of accomplishment. «Je n'ai pas eu les conclusions que je pensais avoir»»»»»»»», indique-t-il au gendarme face à lui.It's been twenty-four hours in police custody.

In his report, the official notes: “During the hearings of Danel Mathieu, during his police custody, the interested party remained of a linear calm.He only answers the questions asked and never engages in dialogue.He does not express any feeling of regret, remorse or pain.It is however disappointed that his gesture did not give him any pleasure.He would have been ready to start again if it had been the case.Throughout the interview, he remained stoic and did not mark any emotion or expression on the face.»»»»»»»»

The director of investigation Bruno Boudjaoui is today retired.From the gendarme memory, he does not remember a more surprising hearing: “I have done a lot of minutes...People who get angry, cry, who lie.It's like a book, a report.It was a principle, throughout my career: we note the question as we ask it and the answer as it is said.And we add the “Uhs” to show the hesitations.»»»»»»But with Mathieu Danel, there had been no hesitation.He had formed a prisoner because it was "inevitable"»»»»»».Sooner or later they would have come to get him."Rather than resuming my life simply and being stopped one day, two weeks or fifteen years later, as much to denounce me.It's better for everyone.»»»»»»»» D'une certaine façon, il préférait que les gendarmes ne se «cassent pas la tête»»»»»»»» à le rechercher.

"She came across an assassin"»»»»»»»

- Where is the body of this person?Questions the gendarme on the other side of the office.- Where I left it, replies Mathieu Danel.

He does not know the region well, but he can give them indications.Near Sommières is a river, and not far from there, a campsite.With self -growing, they passed a gate closed by a cord.In the distance, they could see an isolated house with light.The research brigade deploys a helicopter on site.There, in the middle of the wasteland, almost an area of garrigue, the gendarmes distinguish a shape in high herbs.The team's woman descends in recognition: it is indeed a human body."If someone had discovered the body," explains the investigator Bruno Boudjaoui at the helm, it would have been several days after.»»»»»»»»Alongside the victim is a suitcase and clothes.

On the spot, the medical examiner lists a total of seventeen wounds in the neck, head and thorax.Medico-legal findings corroborate the statements of Mathieu Danel.

At the twenty-fourth hour of police custody, the Valencia prosecutor's office, downtown for the benefit of the Nîmes prosecutor's office, requalifies the facts in assassination.

At the autopsy, the medical examiner notes one thing.The victim presents in the hands of defense lesions, frequent during violent attacks.What is unusual, however, are the fractures of the hand. «C'est la première fois que je vois ça avec une arme blanche»»»»»»»», révèle l'expert.Usually, this type of lesions is found in attacks by firearms.The legalist does not know if the victim was died but, he assures, "she did everything to survive"»»»»»».

Because no parent should see his child thus, Claire Reynier, 39, is identified by his mother thanks to her jewelry.In the office of the director of investigation Bruno Boudjaoui, Claire's parents cry: their daughter was bipolar, she did not take her medication and endangered by caring alone.The gendarme shakes his head: "It is not his fault," he believes.She came across an assassin.»»»»»»»»