The Grenoble prosecutor’s office on Wednesday opened an investigation for “violation of professional secrecy” after the broadcast by the TF1 channel of photographs potentially resulting from the investigation in the case of the murder of little Maëlys.
TF1 “broadcast yesterday evening (Tuesday) in its 8:00 p.m. newspaper photographs likely to come from the investigation procedure concerning the kidnapping, kidnapping and murder of young Maëlys”, indicates the Attorney General of the Court of Grenoble Jacques Dallest appeal in a press release. It is for these facts that “Nordahl Lelandais must appear before the Assize Court of Isère from January 31,” recalled the prosecutor.
An investigation entrusted to the Paris gendarmerie
“The communication of these photographs to an unauthorized third party being likely to constitute a criminal offense, the Attorney General today asked (Wednesday) the public prosecutor at the Grenoble judicial court to open an investigation on the count of violation of the professional secrecy, ”he continues.
The public prosecutor of Grenoble Eric Vaillant confirmed for his part that the prosecution had been seized and “ordered an investigation entrusted to the research section of the Paris gendarmerie”.
The “very last living image of Maëlys” in question
The TF1 report shows in particular an image from a surveillance camera which according to the channel would be the “very last image of Maëlys alive”, sitting in the car of Nordahl Lelandais, as well as photos taken in September 2018 during a reconstruction of the facts in which the suspect had participated.
Maëlys De Araujo had disappeared during the night of August 26 to 27, 2017 during a wedding in the village hall of Pont-de-Beauvoisin, in Isère. Quickly suspected, Nordahl Lelandais, a former military dog handler, had confessed, six months after his indictment, to having “involuntarily” killed the little girl.
A trace of Maëlys’ DNA had been discovered in her car and captures from a CCTV camera seem to show, according to investigators, that the suspect left the wedding party with the child, before returning without her during the night.