Overview
- The Cour de cassation’s full bench is set to answer whether the statute of limitations runs from a victim’s unexplained disappearance in the Marie‑Thérèse Bonfanti case.
- Bonfanti disappeared on May 22, 1986 in Pontcharra, the initial probe ended in a definitive non‑lieu by 1989, and the file was reopened at the family’s request in 2020.
- In 2022, neighbor Yves Chatain confessed to strangling Bonfanti and hiding her body, was charged with kidnapping, sequestration and homicide, then released under judicial supervision in December 2023 as prescription questions mounted.
- Defense lawyer Hélène Farge argues prosecutions for a concealed offense cannot go beyond 30 years counted from the facts and says prescription should not compensate for past investigative shortcomings.
- Prosecutor general Rémy Heitz urges an evolution of doctrine, contending a concealed murder does not begin to prescribe while unknown and noting experts could not precisely date death because only incomplete remains were found in 2022.