Yvelines: Marie-Thérèse Garcia, 79, tried for abduction and murder of Corinne Di Dio in 1995
Marie-Thérèse Garcia, 79, has been appearing since 16 June before the Yvelines court of assise for abduction, unlawful confinement and murder of Corinne Di Dio, whose dismembered remains were found in the Seine in 1995.
Yvelines: Marie-Thérèse Garcia, 79, tried for abduction and murder of Corinne Di Dio in 1995
The Yvelines court of assise, sitting in Versailles, was to deliver its decision on Friday 3 July concerning Marie-Thérèse Garcia, a septuagenarian aged 79 pursued for abduction, unlawful confinement and manslaughter, at the conclusion of fourteen days of hearings. She faces a sentence of up to thirty years' imprisonment.
The case dates back to 19 June 1995, the date of Corinne Di Dio's disappearance, then aged thirty-six. This employee of Guyancourt had left her workplace for a meeting with a person who remained unidentified. Neither she nor her vehicle, a Peugeot 205, were ever found alive. Nine days later, her mutilated corpse, severed into several pieces, was discovered inside a trunk floating in the waters of the Seine, in the Eure département. The autopsy revealed sixteen blade wounds. The formal identification of the victim could only be established in 1997, two years after the incident.
Since 16 June, magistrates, counsel, witnesses and experts have succeeded one another to discuss this complex case, with ramifications linked to serious organised crime. The co-accused, Antonio Marquez Gomez — the deceased's former partner and father of Romain, their child together — was not presented at the bar.
From the opening of the proceedings, the presiding judge highlighted the accused's behaviour at the time of the disappearance. Questioned on the fact that she was looking after Romain, then aged ten, without undertaking any steps to find his mother, Marie-Thérèse Garcia replied with detachment: "She was not a friend, we respected each other, that is all." The magistrate also emphasised the haste with which the child had been handed over to his father, deprived of his belongings and his administrative documents, whereas the victim would never have accepted such a decision without having been informed of it beforehand.
The accused defended herself by claiming that nine days did not constitute a "rushed" timeframe, and that Corinne Di Dio had always recommended to her never to entrust her son to the paternal family, except for holidays with his biological father.
Source: Google News FR — Crime (fr)