She hadn’t given any sign of life for a week. the lifeless body of young Sihem, 18, was found in a forest in the Gard, near the town of Salles-du-Gardon, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, according to our information. He is the main suspect who confessed between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. during a new hearing with the gendarmes of the Nîmes research section. He was transferred and imprisoned during the night.
Facing the investigators, Mahfoud H. gave very brief explanations. He pointed on a map to where he left the body. Sufficiently precise for the judge and the policeman to go to the scene without him. According to his version, which will have to be confirmed by the investigations, the 39-year-old man explains that an argument would have broken out on Wednesday January 25 in the evening.
The suspect claims that the victim was in love with him but that he refused this relationship because Sihem was the cousin of his ex-partner. Still according to his statements, Mahfoud H. would have tried to silence the young girl by putting his hand on her mouth. Sihem would have died of suffocation. Statements which will have to be corroborated in particular by the autopsy.
“I assisted a man who decided to face his heavy responsibility in the disappearance of Sihem and put an end to an unbearable suspense for his relatives by guiding the investigators. He knows that his fault is not forgivable but his silence would only have made it worse”, reacted to the Parisian Me Jean-Marc Darrigade, lawyer for Mahfoud H.
The high school student, an uneventful teenager, had left around 11:10 p.m., Wednesday, January 25, the social housing on the ground floor occupied by her grandmother Fatima, 95 years old. Since this evening, Sihem’s smartphone has never responded to multiple calls from her relatives and family. It was the father who went to declare the disappearance of his only daughter, born in a family of four children, on Thursday January 26, at the police station in Alès. The file was then sent to the Gard gendarmerie group, which began investigations for “disturbing disappearance”.
The track of a false abduction dismissed
The public prosecutor of Alès, François Schneider, had finally opened a procedure for kidnapping and sequestration which made it possible to deploy additional means of investigation. “Obviously, the investigators have sufficient elements to think that Sihem did not disappear of its own free will.had indicated Me Sara Benlefki, family lawyer alongside Me Mourad Battikh.
In support of the elements of the gendarmes, testimonies from friends of Sihem saying that she had left to join an acquaintance, suspected of being Mahfoud H., very unfavorably known to the police services since he has already been sentenced to at least least 13 occasions, in particular for aggravated thefts. Having already spent long periods in prison, he comes from a town bordering that of Sihem and enjoys a reputation as a boss, contrary to that of Sihem, described as a girl without stories.
Moreover, from Thursday, January 26, the day following Sihem’s disappearance, young people from the village went to Mahfoud’s home to ask for an explanation. The situation was so tense that the gendarmes had to intervene to calm things down. According to several testimonies, Mahfoud displayed a certain serenity the following days, even saying “don’t worry, we’ll find her”.
The investigation had progressed rapidly following the disappearance of the young girl. Mahfoud H., 39, was taken into police custody on Tuesday by the gendarmes of the Nîmes research section. Several searches had taken place at his home. The man was due to appear at the assizes the day following his arrest for a home confinement case dating back to 2011. Mahfoud’s ex-girlfriend had also been placed in police custody to determine whether she had information that might to guide the investigation.
According to our information, during the disappearance, the investigators explored for a long time an incredible scenario of false kidnapping which would have become a real one. Testimonies collected by the gendarmes suggested that Mahfoud H. would have convinced Sihem to pretend to be a hostage in order to swindle dangerous drug traffickers from the Nîmes region, who would have stolen narcotics. A discount of €50,000 had been mentioned. This track finally proved to be misleading and the gendarmes are now convinced that Mahfoud H. is the only protagonist of the drama.