THE JEAN-LUC THIEBAULT CASE: THE POLITICIAN, THE MISTRESS AND THE BIKER | Enquêtes criminelles | W9

At the end of May 2014, Michel Pasquier arrives at the gendarmerie in Tour, Haute-Savoie. He is worried stiff: for a week the van belonging to his friend and neighbor, Jean-Luc Thiébault, hasn’t moved and the carpenter, a workaholic, hasn’t shown the least sign of life. The gendarmes decide at once to pay a little call on this 48-year-old divorced father. Inside his house, time seems to have stood still. The calendar hasn’t been changed since 27 May, rotting food is lying around the kitchen and there’s a smashed bottle of wine on the floor, but no sign of Jean-Luc. Where is Jean-Luc Thiébault? A mystery. Just one lead for the gendarmes: according to the carpenter’s friends, he was having an affair with one Fabienne Evangelista, the wife of José Evangelista, a former local councilor and well known in the region. When questioned, the respectable mother admits that she was, in fact, the tradesman’s mistress. But it’s all over. She hasn’t seen him for ten days either. But the investigation then points towards a much more dramatic scenario: on 29 May, the carpenter’s car is found near José Evangelista’s workplace with a smashed window and traces of blood. And, furthermore, a month later, the lover’s body, dead of bullet wounds, is found in a hole at Saint-Jean-de-Tholomé, not far from the former councilor’s home.

Did José Evangelista, the cheated husband, kill his wife’s lover? And what role did Fabienne play in the horrific murder?