Lina's disappearance: the search in the forest ends, what progress has been made in the investigation ?

The searches in the Saulx woods, in Haute-Saône, ended on Thursday afternoon, after three days of digging.

Since Tuesday, investigators have been searching the Saulx woods, near Vesoul. It is located approximately 130 km from where Lina disappeared. The teenager disappeared on September 23 on the road between Plaine and the Saint-Blaise-la-Roche train station. For three days, 90 gendarmes explored the woods to try to find traces of Lina, with the help of around fifteen soldiers belonging to a unit of specialized operational search, as well as investigators from the Criminal Research Institute of the Gendarmerie (IRCGN), dog squads and dogs specialized in searching for human bodies.

These searches were based on GPS records from the stolen car, in which traces of the teenager's DNA were found found. According to the latter, a stop was made in this forest. The Saulx woods are also on one of the possible routes taken by the suspect to reach Besançon, his place of residence, from Plaine.

According to BFMTV,Thursday's search day was the last in the area. The police stopped around 4:30 p.m. after searching 40 hectares of forest. The searches appear to have been unsuccessful, and no information has been received. communicated on possible progress in the investigation. Last week, the searches were more concentrated on the Anould forest, in the Vosges. Law enforcement has yet to reveal whether a new location will be searched soon.

In the footsteps of the suspect

The driver of this vehicle whose tracks the police are following, Samuel G., is the main suspect in the case. However, investigators were unable to question him since he committed suicide shortly after the vehicle was seized, fueling suspicions about his guilt. Investigators were only able to look at his phone data and his car journeys.

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According to Le Parisien, the driver is described as a “local thug” who allegedly kidnapped Lina when he came across her on his way, without knowing her. He then allegedly killed the teenager. And the car's analyses went in the direction of the police who suspected the criminal lead, an important step forward while the investigation had been stalling since the beginning.

Samuel Gonin was a 43-year-old father who taught cabinetmaking at a vocational high school before leaving his job in 2023. That same year, he committed two violent robberies for which he would have had to appear in court in July 2024. On June 12, 2024, he was arrested again for a case of kidnapping before being cleared. Prior to his scheduled appearance on July 22, 2024, he had been diagnosed with a “borderline” personality disorder. by a psychiatric expert who also noted her “dangerousness”, as well as severe depressive symptoms.

An investigation that has been floundering for several months

As a reminder, Lina disappeared on September 23, 2023, late in the morning after leaving her home in Plaine, to take a train, at Saint-Blaise-la-Roche station and meet her boyfriend in Strasbourg. Not seeing her arrive, the young man alerted Lina's mother. Several witnesses, including the village mayor, said they saw the young woman heading towards the station between 11:15 and 11:30. And the investigation revealed that her phone had stopped transmitting at 11:22.

At the start of the investigation, suspicions focused on Lina's boyfriend, but the police quickly cleared him. Last March, three men were taken into custody before being released due to lack of “incriminating evidence”. And in May, a new lead was being investigated after a local business manager explained that one of his employees had disappeared in September, around the same time as Lina. The man in question had vanished overnight, even though he had been working for the company on a permanent contract for twelve years. The company manager had added that his employee lived “very close” to Lina's house.