COULD VANILLA MURDER BE AVOIDED ?

Vanille's mother, little girl found dead in Angers in a clothing container on Sunday, was indicted on Tuesday (February 11th) for "murder of a minor under the age of 15" and placed in pre-trial detention, said Eric Bouillard, public prosecutor of Angers.

"Murder on a minor under 15 years of age"

“The motive for taking action seems to be linked to her departure from the maternal center, departure which had been announced to her, she tells us, on December 3, 2019, the day she decided, by various means (…), to give death to her child, "said the Angers public prosecutor on Monday.

Monday afternoon, the autopsy had confirmed, as his mother had indicated to the investigators "in a relatively detailed manner", that the little girl was killed Friday, by "suffocation".

The mother confessed during her police custody "to have given death to her child Friday, even before the hour at which she should deliver it" to her referent of social assistance to the child (ASE), had indicated the prosecutor on Sunday. Vanille died on February 7, the day of her first birthday.

A premeditated gesture

According to the prosecutor, the mother explained in police custody that she had planned to take action on the girl's first birthday, February 7. She faces life imprisonment. "Vanille's birthday was February 7, the day of her death, which [the mother] took advantage of for her acting out," said the prosecutor. A gesture that nobody could also foresee, according to the statements of the president of the Departmental Council, who also claims that the social services followed all the procedures.

"There was no violence, there was no indication of such an outcome," he said. On the contrary, the mother was described as a person "who was more and more involved" with her child.

Why such a gesture ?

The prosecutor explained on Monday that it was linked to the mother's departure from the Angers maternal center, a home for pregnant women and single mothers, which housed him.

The departure was scheduled for Monday, February 10, after being notified to him on December 3. Nathalie Stephan had been housed in this center for a year. Her daughter had been entrusted to ASE and placed in a foster family by the children's judge, but she could continue to see her mother regularly for a given time during the week.

Malfunctions ?

Was there a dysfunction on the part of the State services?

"There was absolutely no negligence on the part of the children's aid services," said the prosecutor.

However, this is the twenty-fourth time that the abduction alert has been triggered, and it is the first time that it has not made it possible to find the child alive.

This mobilization of the media and state services is usually 100% successful. The abduction alert plan is a massive and immediate alert system, deployed to assist in the search for a child suspected of being abducted. Adopted in France in 2006, it is largely inspired by the "Amber Alert" plan, created in Texas in 1996, after the kidnapping and assassination of Amber Hagerman, a 10-year-old girl.

However, Sunday February 9, in Angers, the little Vanilla who disappeared Friday was found dead...