Éric Foray disappeared in September 2016 after leaving his home to run errands.
The skull of Éric Foray, a 47-year-old man when he disappeared in September 2016, was found in the Vercors, his lawyer told BFMTV on Wednesday, confirming information from the Dauphine Libere.
The man had disappeared in 2016, after leaving his home in his 4×4, in the Drôme, to go shopping. His vehicle was never found. His companion had multiplied calls for witnesses in the region and on social networks.
“The causes of Eric Foray’s death remain to be discovered, like the rest of his remains. For the time being, no hypothesis has been ruled out, including that leading to intentional homicide”, indicated the public prosecutor of Valence, Laurent de Caigny, in a statement.
A “major development” of the investigation
He considered the discovery and formal identification of the skull via “forensic analysis” to be a “major development” in the investigation. The circumstances of the discovery of the skull were not specified.
“By a supplementary indictment dated January 3, 2023, the Valence public prosecutor’s office extended the referral to the investigating judge to the qualification of murder, so that he now continues to elucidate the circumstances, if any, criminal of the death “of the disappeared, said Laurent de Caigny.
The initial investigation had led the prosecution to open a judicial investigation for kidnapping and forcible confinement. The investigations were carried out by the “cold-case” group of the Grenoble research section, supported by the Drôme gendarmerie group, according to the same source.
A link with Nordahl Lelandais under study
His lawyer Maître Boulloud filed a complaint against X in 2018 for sequestration, with civil action, in order to “verify if there was not a connection” between Éric Foray and Nordahl Lelandais, he then explained to BFMTV.
In 2018, the Ariane cell, responsible for reopening many cold cases in the light of the profile of Nordahl Lelandais, had established a link between him and Éric Foray: the last name of the missing person appeared in an address book of the ex-military. It was actually a friend of Lelandais, who had been heard and had no connection with Éric Foray, according to a source close to the investigation. The track had therefore been dismissed.
Nordahl Lelandais was sentenced to 20 years in prison, in May 2021, for the murder of Corporal Arthur Noyer, in April 2017 in Chambéry. He was also found guilty of the kidnapping and murder of little Maëlys de Araujo, 8, during a wedding party in Pont-de-Beauvoisin in Isère in August 2017, and sexual assaults against two little cousins, 4 and 6 years old, during the same summer, and sentenced in February 2022 to life imprisonment with a security period of 22 years.
