“Our little world has collapsed,” the victim’s aunt, who was walking at the head of the procession alongside the dead girl’s parents and brother, told AFP. “Lyhanna must be so moved when she looks down on how many people have gathered here for her,” she added.
The participants of the march, including the mayor of the village, were dressed in white, some held white flowers in their hands and carried a banner with the inscription “Never again! We love you. We miss you”. 150 gendarmes supervised the security of the march.
“It affects me. I have two children, a twelve-year-old daughter and a thirteen-year-old son. It could have happened to my family, my son or daughter,” said 41-year-old Céline Camus.
Photo: Profimedia.cz
The participants of the march, including the mayor of the village, were dressed in white.
Fleurance is located in the Gers department about 65 kilometers northwest of Toulouse and has approximately 6,000 inhabitants. Lyhanna disappeared in the village on the afternoon of May 29 after leaving school. Her body was found on June 4 in a silo in an abandoned agricultural area. An autopsy on Friday confirmed that the remains belong to the girl, with the fact that the cause of death could not yet be determined.
The main suspect, 41-year-old Jérôme B., the father of Lyhanna’s classmate, was charged with kidnapping and restricting personal freedom on June 1 and is in custody. In the past, four criminal reports were filed against him due to possible sexual assault or rape of minors and inappropriate behavior towards a high school girl. Despite their suspicions, the investigators never even questioned Jérôm.
In the neighboring village of Montestruc-sur-Gers, where the suspect lives, a white sheet with the spray-painted inscription “PDM (death penalty) for pedophiles” covered the sign with the name of the village on Sunday, AFP photographer reported.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin apologized on behalf of the ministry to the girl’s survivors on Friday, President Emmanuel Macron spoke of an unacceptable failure. Darmanin announced on Sunday that, following the case, he would ask the attorneys general to review “all complaints involving children” by July 14, or about 70,000 cases.
