A French judge specialising in cold cases will investigate the disappearance of two Belgian tourists in Savoie in 1984.
The case concerns Marie-Agnès Cordonnier and Françoise Bruyère, two 22-year-old cousins who vanished while on holiday in Aix-les-Bains. The Serial and Unsolved Crimes Unit (PCSNE) in Nanterre, near Paris, has officially taken charge of the investigation.
The probe may include new searches and interviews with individuals still alive who could provide relevant information about the case.
According to the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, the case holds an additional mystery: the sudden and unexplained halt in 1996 of charges against a main suspect. This man, heavily implicated, passed away in 2020.
Police in Chambéry reportedly gathered seven consistent testimonies suggesting the suspect escorted the two young women to a bar in a central Aix-les-Bains alley on the evening of 23 August 1984. The man was already known to authorities for severe acts of violence.
In May 1996, he was charged and detained but was released less than a month later.
The reasons for these events remain unclear, renewing questions decades later as investigators revisit the case.
