Bones found in new searches related to France’s no-body murder case
Cédric Jubillar confessed to killing his wife last week after denying his involvement for five years, and is helping authorities find remains
Bones that are ‘potentially human’ have been found in south-west France in relation to a high-profile murder case.
It comes after Cédric Jubillar formally confessed to the murder of his wife Delphine Aussaguel on July 6.
Following his initial confession, he said he would help officers locate the body. On Wednesday (July 15) he was taken from his cell to help find his wife’s body, with searches beginning on July 16.
“Bones that could be human remains were found at the site indicated by Cédric Jubillar as the place where he had left Ms Aussaguel's body,” said Toulouse appeal court prosecutor general Nicolas Jacquet at a press conference.
The bones – comprising the lower part of a body and including two femurs – were found near Cagnac-les-Mines (Tarn), the village where the two lived before Ms Aussaguel’s death.
They were found buried under a mound of earth, around 15km from the couple’s home.
Jubillar assisted around 100 gendarmes engaged in the operation by providing information on the location of where he believes he buried the body.
This figure includes several K-9 (dogs and their handlers) teams with expertise in finding human remains, and an anti-drone unit to stop the searches being filmed.
The search remains ongoing, with definitive evidence yet to be found.
Jubillar’s ex-partner told media outlet BFMTV that he has admitted to her that he ‘strangled’ his ex-wife and left her body ‘in a field near a farm’. These reports remain unconfirmed.
His official confession came after a trial that gripped France saw him convicted to 30 years in prison for killing his wife, despite an absence of evidence.
He lodged an appeal, currently set to be heard by the Toulouse appeal court on September 21 before confessing that he had killed her to his lawyers.
His lawyers said that the confession was a ‘relief’ to Jubillar after several months of conversation.
The appeal case is still scheduled for September 21, although the confession – and results from the search – will provide a raft of new evidence.
‘Great relief’ to family
The family of Ms Aussaguel feel ‘great relief’ at the discovery, said lawyer Philippe Pressecq, representing the deceased’s cousin.
“I assume he will claim that [her] death was accidental. That strikes me as a fairly standard strategy,” he said, quoted in FranceInfo.
The case became particularly gripping for the French public as investigators could not establish a crime scene nor find evidence of Ms Aussaguel’s disappearance or body throughout the trial.
Incarcerated since June 2021, Jubillar had continually maintained that he was not involved in his wife’s disappearance until his confession last week.
