Disappearance of Manon Relandeau: grandmother battles to find her granddaughter in Algeria
Manon Relandeau, a farmer from Loire-Atlantique, disappeared on 28 March. The judiciary suspects her partner of having killed her before kidnapping their daughter and fleeing to Algeria. The grandmother of the child is fighting to obtain custody and to clarify the circumstances of her daughter's di
Manon Relandeau: six months of mystery and hope
Nathalie Rousseau regularly receives videos of her granddaughter Inaya, who lives 1,200 kilometres away from her home, in Algeria. "The first videos I received from Algeria, she was 16 months old. She is always well dressed, she is always well groomed. It is also good to see that she is happy anyway. It does me good and it hurts me at the same time," the grandmother reported in the Sept à Huit report, according to TF1 Info. "Because Manon does not have the chance to see her daughter grow up."
Manon Relandeau, Nathalie's daughter, mysteriously disappeared on 28 March last year, six months ago. A 31-year-old farmer near Nantes, she ran a horse boarding facility and a breeding operation for 50 Nantes cows. The judiciary suspects her partner, Karim B., an agricultural mechanic of Algerian nationality whom she had met three years earlier on the Internet, of having killed her before kidnapping their daughter and fleeing to Algeria.
"Unfortunately, for me, Manon is no longer in this world. I feel that. She is in my heart. But it is Inaya who gives me strength. It may be a fight for her to come back. But I will hold on to Inaya," the grandmother explains. "I will love her as my daughter. She is a part of Manon."
A relationship that deteriorated
At first, the relationship between Karim and Manon seemed idyllic. But after the birth of their baby in December 2024, tensions intensified. Manon had confided in her mother six months before her disappearance. "She told me: Karim, he is like bipolar. All of a sudden, it's fine, then all of a sudden, he gets angry. And then he puts me down, he insults me," Nathalie Rousseau recalls.
The young mother worried her even more. "She had told me that as soon as she spoke to a man, that was it, she was flirting with him. She did not understand his angers, especially when, since Inaya's birth, he told her that she was a bad mother, that she was not looking after her daughter properly, that her baby was more about the farm. She was working too much," her mother adds.
At the beginning of the year, Manon decides to leave Karim. She contacts a centre specialising in violence against women in Nantes for an appointment scheduled for early April. At the end of March, during a final telephone call, Manon confides her anxiety to her mother. "She says to me: mum, I am really scared. He takes my phone, he takes my bank card. And I tell her: but listen, we will go to the police, to the gendarmerie. She says to me: no, mum, you know, it will be worse if you come. It will be worse. Leave it, I will manage. But do not call me."
The disappearance
The two days following this call, Manon works at the farm as usual. From Saturday 28 March onwards, no one sees her there anymore. After a week without news, those close to her raise the alarm. The gendarmes who go to the couple's home find only Manon's phone, with no other clue, no sign of struggle or blood.
Investigators quickly discover that Karim B. boarded a Nantes-Algiers flight the day before with Inaya, as shown by surveillance camera footage. They suspect him of having killed Manon and of having manipulated those around her to buy time before fleeing to Algeria.
Suspicious messages
Investigators gather a statement from Cécile, a friend of Manon's who regularly helps her at the farm and still looks after the animals. For a week after the disappearance, Cécile received strange messages from Manon on Facebook. Her friend claimed to be away because of a training course. "29 March at 20:44. Hi, are you available tomorrow to help Karim, please. You just feed the horses, you find the 4x4 in front of the mobile home," Cécile reads, showing the messages.
"It is indeed sent from Manon's account. But still, there are more spelling mistakes than Manon would make. She would not write 'feed the hay and water', but 'F, E, E, D'. Nor 'sorry, I had no battery', but 'B, A, T, T, E, R, Y'," the young woman emphasises. The gendarmes suspect the man of having impersonated Manon to all those around her for a week.
A violent past
Investigators discover that Karim B. has serious criminal records. Convicted in 2018 for injuring his girlfriend at the time, he was also accused of violence by the mother of his first daughter, with whom he was married. She agrees to testify by telephone. "One day, he hit me with my daughter in my arms and spat in my face too. And so I called the police and fled my home. After that, it was a fight for custody of my daughter. He made my life hell for 10 years," she confides.
In 2018, this woman obtains exclusive custody and a territorial departure ban for her daughter, as Karim B. had allegedly threatened several times to kidnap her. "At the time of our separation, he said clearly that he wanted to take her. So I never lived very peacefully," she adds.
International investigation
On 10 April, the Nantes prosecutor's office opens an investigation for murder and abduction of minors and issues an international arrest warrant against Karim B. From Algeria, he contacts those close to Manon, denying having harmed her and explaining that his trip had been planned long ago. He even proclaims his innocence on social media.
Nathalie Rousseau remains determined to find her granddaughter and to establish the truth about her daughter's disappearance, transforming her personal struggle into a battle for justice.
Source: TF1 Info