Lina's disappearance: new revelations about the main suspect

Samuel Gonin, the main suspect in the case of Lina, a 15-year-old teenager who disappeared in Bas-Rhin a year ago, committed suicide last July. The man's profile is becoming clearer.

Nearly a year after the disappearance of Lina, 15, a man is suspected of being linked to the case, before committing suicide last July. This man is Samuel Gonin, aged 43. BFMTV reveals this Friday, August 30, new information concerning this father, considered the main suspect in this disappearance.

On July 10, the forty-year-old hanged himself after leaving a letter addressed to his children.  “He is going to write, “I can't control myself anymore, it's going too fast, I'm suffering too much and it's better this way”, Valentin Collin, a journalist at L'Est Républicain Besançon, reported to BFMTV.

The investigation into Lina's disappearance was stalling as police officers tried to identify all the cars that had used the departmental road on which the young girl was last seen on September 23, 2023. Investigators were interested in a light gray Ford Puma, stolen and registered in Germany. They found traces of the vehicle in a pound 800 kilometers from the scene, in Narbonne. Lina's DNA is found there, and a suspect is identified for the first time. It is Samuel Gonin, arrested at the wheel of the same vehicle in January.

A “Mr. Everyman”

A father of two young children, Samuel Gonin seems to lead an ordinary life. He appeared in the columns of the local press in 2016, where he recounts having lost and then found 700 euros in cash in a shopping center. He says he spent money on his children's Christmas presents.

The man is described as a jack-of-all-trades: he was a salesman, a vehicle salesman and even a cabinetmaking teacher in a vocational high school.  “He was someone who was very much appreciated by the students and the other teachers,” assures Frédéric Chabord, director of the high school. “He was someone who was quite discreet but very involved in the educational project”.

In 2023, his attitude changes when he separates from his wife and moves away from his father.  "He disappears for the first time. He will send us text messages, to me and to his mother, telling us that it is over for him, for this life,", recalls Edmée, his former partner. "At first, he says he wants to commit suicide. So his mother calls the police to make a missing person alert." He is then admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

Sentenced to 15 months in prison, suspended, after forcing the barriers of a toll booth

Upon his release, he steals 5,000 euros from his partner and becomes addicted to cocaine. A month before Lina's disappearance, he tried to steal a 90-year-old woman's bag. “I held her back. He dragged me, I fell on my knees and he was still pulling me with my bag. He made me fall back on my arm, which broke, and he ran away,” the woman explains.

Three hours later, he robs a convenience store, threatening the cashier. It was on that same day that he appeared at the wheel of the car in which Lina's DNA was found.

Six months later, he received a fifteen-month suspended sentence after forcing the barriers of a toll booth where customs officers tried to check him while he was heading to Spain. Last July, he was arrested again for theft. 12 days before his hearing, he decides to commit suicide.

Nothing proves at the moment that he murdered the young girl, whose trace or body have not been found.