Two years after the disappearance of Delphine Jubillar, it’s time for reconstruction – France

A reconstruction of the night when Delphine Jubillar, a 33-year-old nurse, disappeared from her home in December 2020 is scheduled for Tuesday in Cagnac-les-Mines, near Albi in the Tarn, in the presence of her husband, Cédric Jubillar , the main suspect. The instruction intends to retrace the evening of December 15 to 16, 2020 during which this mother of two disappeared from the couple’s home, leaving behind her papers, her keys and even her glasses, and this in full curfew. due to the covid-19 pandemic.

All parties were invited to the reconstruction, from 8 p.m., in this house uninhabited since the tragedy, and which has never been completed, revealing its bare brick walls. This type of operation, organized “systematically in criminal cases”, aims to “reconstitute the scenario”, specified to AFP Samuel Vuelta-Simon, public prosecutor in Toulouse. It will be done “on the basis of the statements of the indicted or the findings of the scientific police and testimonies if there are any”, he added.

“Highly conflicted separation context”

The reconstruction was requested by the lawyers of Cédric Jubillar, who continues to proclaim his innocence. “I’m waiting for us to be given the prosecution’s scenario, which for the moment seems a little difficult to explain to us what happened that night,” said Me Jean-Baptiste Alary, l one of his lawyers. “We have to be able to defend ourselves from specific facts,” he stressed.

Cédric Jubillar, painter and plasterer now 35 years old, was indicted in June 2021 for “intentional homicide by spouse” and imprisoned in solitary confinement in the prison of Seysses, near Toulouse. His wife Delphine had told him of her desire to divorce and the “context of separation (was) very conflicting”, according to Dominique Alzéari, Toulouse prosecutor at the time. According to this magistrate, Cédric Jubillar knew that his wife had a “lover” and could sometimes be “brutal and aggressive”.

“Situation” rather than “reconstruction”

In addition, two neighbors said they heard “shrilly cries of distress” around 11 p.m. on December 15 and the couple’s then six-year-old son said he heard his parents arguing that same evening. Cédric Jubillar refutes these assertions. According to him, his wife would have left the house that evening around 11 p.m. to walk their two dogs, dressed in a white down jacket and with her mobile phone. Awakened around 4 a.m. by the crying of their daughter, he alerted the gendarmes after noticing the absence of his wife.

Two years later, and as the end of the investigation approaches, Delphine Jubillar and her phone remain untraceable, despite major search campaigns. In the absence of a body, confession or irrefutable element, a source close to the investigation prefers to speak of a “scenario” rather than a “reconstruction”.

Detect possible inconsistencies

This Tuesday evening, Cédric Jubillar will have to “reproduce the gestures which have been his as he has described them since the first day”, advances Me Alary, assuring that his client “has nothing to hide”. If other gestures must be reproduced, they will be mimicked by “a breastplate”, that is to say a mannequin or a third person, he explains.

During this exercise, the investigators will make sure to detect any inconsistencies. The civil parties represented by their lawyers hope “that something happens and that the case is unblocked”, according to Me Mourad Battick, lawyer for relatives of Delphine Jubillar. “They are waiting for the truth to emerge” and “for Cédric to explain what happened and for us to know where the body is” in order to begin a process of mourning, he added.

Telephone prohibited on the premises

The two investigating judges Audrey Assemat and Coralyne Chartier also asked that participants not bring their phones to the scene. A measure that outrages defense lawyers. “It’s absurd, we’ve never seen that,” thunders Me Alary, who says he does not understand the motivations for such a request. A hundred gendarmes will be deployed to secure the premises and keep journalists and onlookers at a distance.

The disappearance of Delphine Jubillar had caused a major stir in France at the approach of Christmas and shortly after the conviction of Jonathann Daval for the murder of his wife in Haute-Saône, which he had long denied by playing the role of the grieving husband .