A 54-year-old prisoner escaped Monday from the semi-open prison of Mauzac (Dordogne), where he was serving a 28-year prison sentence for a double murder. He was recognized by a witness and arrested near his father’s home.
The detainee who escaped Monday March 13 from Mauzac prison (Dordogne) was found and arrested in Nice on Wednesday morning, learned France Bleu Périgord from a source close to the investigation, confirming information from Nice morning. Philippe Dubois is serving a 28-year sentence for murder and kidnapping, for acts committed in Nice in 2002. He had been sentenced on appeal in 2008. An investigation had been entrusted to the research brigade of Bergerac and the gendarmerie brigade of Lalinde in order, in particular, “to identify any complicity from which he may have benefited” to escape.
He was convicted of a double murder
This 54-year-old man was serving, among other things, a 28-year prison sentence for murder and robbery with a weapon. “He is serving several sentences including that pronounced by the Assize Court of Bouches-du-Rhône on March 20, 2008, of 28 years of criminal imprisonment for acts of murder and theft with a weapon”said the Bergerac prosecutor.
He was found guilty of the murder of a 72-year-old woman, Francine Veran-Raspini, and her 48-year-old son, Marc Raspini, in 2002 on the heights of Nice. At the assizes of the Alpes-Maritimes, in 2006, Philippe Dubois was in the dock with two accomplices, Laurent Gauvin and his father Patrick Gauvin. According to the investigators, the two victims, owners of a significant heritage, rented agricultural land and their annuities brought them more than 12,000 euros per month. This sum has fueled the lusts of the three men. Philippe Dubois was a former tenant of the Raspini family.
The three men were sentenced to life imprisonment before appealing. During the appeal trial, at the Bouches-du-Rhône assizes, in 2008, Philippe Dubois was sentenced to 28 years of criminal imprisonment, like Laurent Gauvin. Patrick Gauvin was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
His absence had been reported around 12:30 p.m.
Philippe Dubois had benefited from a sentence adjustment measure validated by a sentence enforcement judge, franceinfo learned on Tuesday from a source familiar with the matter. This prisoner worked on a construction site during the day and slept in Mauzac prison at night. Since last February, he had been receiving training in a farm-school in the Mauzac detention center.
This Monday, he showed up at his place of work, but his absence was reported around 12:30 p.m. He managed to evade the surveillance of the agents and fled, said the Bergerac prosecution, which indicated on Tuesday that the search was intensifying to locate and arrest the fifty-year-old.
He was incarcerated in an atypical prison
The Mauzac-et-Grand-Castang detention center in which Philippe Dubois is incarcerated is a semi-open prison that accommodates men sentenced to heavy sentences. Philippe Dubois was transferred in September 2022 to Mauzac, and before that he was serving his sentence in Lot-et-Garonne. His end of sentence was set for May 2026, the prosecution said. The detainee was carrying out horticultural work in an area located on the prison’s right-of-way, but outside the secure and closed detention area, said the Bergerac prosecution. Detainees go there and work there supervised by supervisors of the prison administration, said the prosecution.
Investigators are now trying to find out why this man at the end of his sentence fled. According to information from France Bleu Azur, he was released in three years. During the last sentencing commission, he had been refused a request for leave by the Bergerac sentencing judge, the prosecution said.
He was found in Nice and taken into custody
Subject of a search warrant for escape, Philippe Dubois was arrested Wednesday in Nice, at 6:45 a.m. It was a witness who gave the alert after having recognized him, learned franceinfo from a source close to the file. Philippe Dubois was then followed using video surveillance, then arrested without difficulty near his father, added this source. The Nice prosecutor’s office confirmed to France Bleu Azur that the detainee was placed in police custody in Nice and the PJ investigators are now trying to find out how he escaped, and whether he was able to benefit from complicity.
