French detectives have arrested a homeless youth in relation to the gruesome news of four bodies recovered from the River Seine this month. The somber case shocked residents in Choisy-le-Roi, a suburb on the outskirts of Paris, where the bodies were seen on August 13. A train passenger initially saw one body floating, and police later picked up three more in the same waterway. Some victims were half-naked, while at least two bore marks of strangulation.
The suspect, reportedly in his twenties, was taken in front of a judge at Creteil on Sunday and remanded in preliminary detention. Prosecutors indicated his nationality and identity are unknown, but said that he was a rough sleeper along the Seine.
Authorities connected the man to all four victims, two Algerians aged 21, a Tunisian aged 26, and a 46-year-old Frenchman. According to investigators, all the four were last spotted close to the riverbanks where the suspect tended to spend a lot of time. CCTV images, telephone records, and eyewitnesses put him close to the victims prior to their disappearance.
More fuelling suspicions, the man had been arrested on August 5 with papers that ultimately proved to be one of the victims'. The missing person report hadn't yet been made, so he was let go on a summons for receiving stolen property. He was also to appear in court in September on a charge of theft from an auto.
Even with increasing evidence, the suspect remained tight-lipped. His attorney, Antoine Ory, verified that he has invoked his right against self-incrimination in questioning but suggested he will talk later in the investigation.
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Forensic examination has now identified all four victims. Two were North African homeless men, while the French victim and a further Algerian were known to use the riverside promenades. The area has a reputation both as a meeting place for transient encounters and as a stopover refuge for the homeless, a complicating circumstance in the investigation.
Autopsy reports affirmed strangulation in two instances, and another body indicated markings without explanation. Additional forensic examination is being conducted.
For residents of Choisy-le-Roi, the gruesome affair has awakened fear and concern. The riverbanks, where people could take their leisure and fish, are now the site of one of the suburb's darkest enigmas. Although police think they have more insight as to how the men crossed the path of the suspect, the questions that remain unanswered leave the community in a tizzy.
