CASE CLOSED: THE HOUR OF JUDGMENT | TF1 | Reportages

There are thousands of closed cases in France. Forgotten investigations, suspicious deaths that the law too quickly classified as suicide or accident. It requires great courage, tenacity and energy from the families who seek to re-open these old cases.Two years ago, we told the story of Marie Rose Blétry. She had been fighting since 1996 to prevent the investigation into the murder of her daughter Christelle, killed by 123 stab wounds, from being closed. She was right. 17 years after the crime, Christelle’s presumed killer was arrested thanks to DNA evidence. From January 23 to February 3 2017 we sat beside Marie Rose Blétry during the trial of her daughter’s presumed killer. A high-tension trial. For 9 days, Marie Rose Blétry never took her eyes off the accused, waiting for his confession…A few hundred kilometers away, another family is hoping that its struggle will one day end in a trial. Samuel and Jeannette Kameugne lost their son in 2008 and still they don’t know why. Stéphane, 24, was a student at the Arts et Metiers National School of Châlons en Champagne. He disappeared on the night of the school party. His body was found in a canal 200 meters away. The law considered it was an accident, but Stéphane’s family, convinced of the contrary, has never given up. In July 2016 we accompanied the family to the office of the new judge appointed to the case. He had just decided to widen the investigation to one of murder. Ten months later, Samuel and Jeannette Kameugne may finally have some answers to the questions they have been asking for 8 years…