Overview
- The investigating chamber of the Versailles appeals court authorized the exhumation of 23-year-old real-estate agent Sophie Narme, who was raped and killed in Paris in 1991.
- The decision reverses an April refusal that cited concerns about the absence of a lead-lined coffin, with judges now finding the burial conditions uncertain.
- Defense lawyer Béatrice Zavarro requested the exhumation, saying potential DNA or other forensic traces could help establish Dominique Pelicot’s innocence in the 1991 case.
- Investigators note similarities between the 1991 killing and a 1999 attempted rape of a real-estate agent, including the way the victims were undressed and the use of ether as a sedative.
- Pelicot, who denies the 1991 murder, made a partial confession in the 1999 attack after a DNA match and is currently serving a 20-year sentence from a separate Avignon case that also led to dozens of co-defendant convictions.