It will soon be 4 years since Delphine Jubillar disappeared. However, the mystery remains unsolved… Next year, the trial of Cédric Jubillar should open before the azides of Tarn, the journalist Frédéric Abéla returns to this “unfinished investigation”, in a book that he will sign on Saturday, in Cahors, then , in Albi.
In November 2020, Jonathan Daval was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife, Alexia. This news plunged France into real turmoil. It is hard to imagine, a few months later, that another investigation will make headlines in its turn. On December 15, 2020, the disappearance of Delphine Jubillar from her home in Cagnac-les-Mines moved crowds. This incredible case, full of twists and turns, in which neither the victim nor the crime scene was found, was reopened by Frédéric Abéla, journalist at Dépêche du Midi. He signed “Jubillar, L'investigation inachieve”, which has just been published by Editions La Dépêche. Frédéric Abéla tells us before his signing session this Saturday, September 7, at the Librairie Calligramme in Cahors from 9:30 to 12:30.
When we follow such a criminal case, dissected by all the media, what makes us feel the need to write a book about it? And above all, what more can I say?
In fact, what's interesting when you're a viewer of a news story like this is that you have scattered elements to process. With a little distance, putting these elements together and in chronological order, and in their context, we realize that it is not the same story anymore.
The Jubillar affair is interesting because it lasts in time, with the impression of being endless, without a body, without murder, without confessions, almost mysterious. Therefore, it is complicated for the prosecution to build a strong case without hard evidence. Investigators had to look elsewhere: the phone, witnesses, rare clues, but everything is so fragile. The purpose of this book was to demonstrate how in this high-profile business we manage to incriminate someone without tangible evidence.
I therefore focused on the investigative work for 4 to 5 months, I took the gist of the accusation, of what we could oppose to all that, against the background of the fictional story of the life of Cédric and Delphine, their meeting, lover, their failures… They both played a dangerous game. Interveners, friends, confidantes… In the end, they all poisoned this already extremely toxic relationship between the couple.
What made people become passionate about this new news, what is unique and incredible about it, making it so that more than three years after the imprisonment of the only suspect, the subject arouses so much interest.
Already, the context of the end of 2020 is a period of Covid in France, in isolation at night, just before Christmas. There's a black hole in the news that needs to be filled when this disturbing disappearance occurs involving a nurse and her husband who are overwhelmed by everything. Check all the boxes. Quickly, social media caught fire. And then, France is just getting out of the Daval business.
What would you say about this survey?
It is colossal, meticulous. They went so far as to make international requisitions from Google, asking for American assistance. They are convinced he is involved. Cédric Jubillar turns out to be a certain man with a suspicious profile, surpassing Daval or Lelendais. But investigators run into a wall.
They thought that by not taking him into custody for the first 6 months he would be wrong… They worked the GPS location, went back to all the places mentioned, searched, but found nothing. It's a taste of unfinished business.
Reading this book, we wonder about the Assies trial, expected for 2025… Will the jurors succeed in forming an intimate conviction?
He will be tried in Albi, where he is known and does not necessarily have a good reputation. Jurors will be immersed in this case. In front of Cédric Jubillar, they will either reset the counters to zero or be swayed by what they have seen of this business. At the assizes the truth must be revealed, then everything will also depend on his behavior, on the witnesses and on the pleadings of the lawyers. We know we're going to have a very offensive defense. But sentencing someone without a body has been seen before.