2023-06-10 04:16:32
The investigation into the death of Iris Coëtmen, 23 years old, this young woman found lifeless on Saturday morning May 27 near Lorient (Morbihan), has made great strides over the past two days. Christophe R., 48 ans, arrested Thursday at his home, was presented to an investigating judge this Friday, June 9 at the end of the afternoon. He was indicted for “kidnapping, forcible confinement, intentional homicide: murder, preceded or accompanied by another crime: rape” in the evening and temporarily imprisoned.
The suspect, unfavorably known to the police, initially denied the facts en bloc while in police custody. But his genetic profile (DNA) was “found under the fingernails of the victim”, specifies this Friday evening in a press release the public prosecutor of Lorient. He then admitted to having seen the victim “drunk and inanimate and having loaded him aboard his van” to “help him, before telling him to leave”. He denies any offense committed against her, but explains that “she must have scratched him”.
Already sentenced for a rape committed in 2001
Sources close to the case also fear that the suspect may have committed other rapes and murders in the area as his behavior that night is described as that of a predator. The public prosecutor specifies this Friday evening that the suspect was the subject of “four legal convictions” between 2003 and 2015 for two traffic offenses and a theft but especially for a rape. The attack dates back to January 2001, but the investigation was initially closed for lack of elements to identify it, before being reopened thanks to DNA ten years later.
“He was found guilty and sentenced in 2015 to a 9-year prison term and socio-judicial follow-up for 5 years”, specifies the prosecution in its press release. “During this follow-up and during their assessments of the subject, the experts did not find any element as to a possible risk of recurrence”.
The suspect was identified on CCTV footage from the Lorient sub-prefecture, where the victim can be seen lying on the public highway. It was the cross-referencing of data between owners of white utility vehicles and the identity of offenders registered in the Automated Judicial File for Sexual or Violent Offenders (Fijais) that led to the arrest of the suspect.
“Before prison, he did a lot of stupid things”
L’autopsy, carried out on May 30, “made it possible to evoke the recent nature of sexual acts, having caused traumatic lesions”, specified the public prosecutor of Lorient. “The victim had traumatic lesions and hematomas on the head and face (shocks by blunt objects, etc.), prehension lesions on the arms, traces of strangulation with a mechanism of major asphyxia, without that it was possible to indicate, at this stage, if this asphyxia was the result of the strangulation maneuvers or if it had also been induced by the drowning (or by both, successively)”. Further analyzes are in progress.
According to our information, Christophe, who previously lived in Lanester where the body of Iris was found, was installed not far in a house in Hennebont, which he has owned for several years. His relations with his relatives, who also live in the region, are visibly strained, even non-existent, especially since his conviction and his imprisonment.
“We really don’t see him anymore,” says a family member. So much so that he would have married a little secretly with his partner about a year ago; we learned it through other means”. The suspect would therefore have recently married the woman who shared his life and with whom he had a daughter, now an adult.
The family recognizes that the profile of Christophe R. was particular: “Before prison, he did a lot of stupid things. He was a bit klepto, but more the type to steal pants off a washing line,” said one. For another, on the other hand, “he was still a hard worker — he always worked — someone kind, courageous, and above all simple. I knew all his companions, and I never saw him hit a woman or commit any act of violence.
Iris Coëtmen had vanished after spending the evening of Friday May 26 in a bar in Lorient where she had her habits. His body had been fished out the next morning, around 10 a.m., 6 km away, floating in the Blavet, in Lanester. According to the first elements that had been gathered at the start of the investigation, she had been seen for the last time around 3:30 a.m., shortly after closing, staggering under the influence of alcohol, accompanied, according to several witnesses, by three men . One of them, who is none other than his brother-in-law, would have left the group first. Placed in police custody for a few hours at the very start of the investigation, he was released without prosecution, his statements having been corroborated by the investigation.
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