Crime of Maracon

The crime of Maracon is a unsolved business of Homicide which took place in Suisse in 1949, causing emotion and mystery. Today still, all is not elucidated, and of many people claim to know the culprit of the murders which were made. Many are also the suspectées people, sometimes in high place.

The crime of Maracon present of the single features, from its nature of unsolved business and the movements which it caused in the Population. It thus gave place to legends, relayed by the press, of which some are still tough today. Thus, one refers to the fact regularly that the victims would have been beaten with blow of crank, that one of them would have been pregnant or that the police force would have initially concluded with a road accident, without counting the persistent theory according to which the culprit would be an ecclesiastic. While raising a corner of the veil thrown during fifty years on the file of Judicial police, the purpose of this article is to rectify certain usually heard assertions.

Discovered bodies

Sunday June 19th 1949, with 19:30, a farmer of Rogivue discovers the bodies of two young girls on the territory of the commune of Maracon. They lay in a Bois, below the road Semsales - Palézieux and in edge of the brook of the Corjon.

First operations of investigation

The farmer goes in the municipal secretary of Rogivue and alarm the gendarmerie by Téléphone. As of 21:30, on the spot the various people concerned arrive successively, among whom the judge adviser of the area of Oron - Moudon is, two doctors of the area, the commander of the cantonal police force, the Commander of the gendarmerie, like several gendarmes and inspectors of safety.

This evening, only a special correspondent of the Nouvelle Review of Lausanne had wind of the business and can describe for his readers the environment of the first operations of investigations. He raises in particular that the powerful car of the police force of safety is provided with a connection radio and that a honest country-woman holds a can with the hand to serve as the to the gendarmes.

On the indications of the first witnesses, the inspectors of the Service of the Criminal records office directed projectors on the bank of the brook so as to see the bodies of the two young girls extended to some steps from there. One finds in the neighborhoods two handbags, of which one contains an act of Freibourgese origin allowing to identify one of the victims, Marie-Therese B ***, born in 1931. This document is immediately given to the judge adviser, who puts himself in relation to the gendarmerie of Châtel-Saint-Denis. Following these steps, it will be established that the body not identified is that of Helene M ***, born in 1932, and that the two victims lived Semsales. The press will raise that one did not know frequentations with these young girls, in addition of good behavior. The parents of the victims will confirm that they were not in possession that small sums of money and that nothing was catch to them.

After having marked the site of the handbags using stakes (which one can today see with the museum of Safety), the inspectors of the Criminal records office return to Lausanne where, as of 1:30, the handbags will be examined to reveal there possible digital fingerprints or any other index likely to be useful for the investigation. But no identifiable Digital fingerprint could be raised there, owing to the fact that the bags in question were projected in the wet Herbe.

The advanced hour and the darkness make difficult of fuller observations. Being given the risk to trample the places unnecessarily, of night, and to hide in the ground the objects which can constitute evidence, the Commander of the cantonal police force, agreement with the judge adviser, gives the order to stop the operations with approximately 0:45, on June 20th. The Corporal of the station of Oron and two gendarmes are in charge of the bodyguard during the night.

The June 20th 1949, with 5:00, the operations are taken again on the spot, with the gleam of the incipient day. The Service of the Criminal records office proceeds to the catch of photographs, measurements to establish a sketch and to meticulous investigations of the place of the Crime and of its accesses. On the road, with a score of meters of the bridge of the Corjon, side Semsales, the presence of many bloodstains attests that the drama probably proceeded there and that the corpses were then dissimulated in the Forêt.

Towards 7:00, the judge orders the lifting of the bodies, which are transported temporarily in pre, where they are the subject of a summary examination by the doctors present. This examination reveals that death was caused by projectiles of Firearm. The bodies are then placed on a harnessed truck of a horse and are transported in the room of the municipality of Maracon. There, the doctors examine new, of which they conclude that the two victims were killed with a Firearm of small Caliber. Marie-Therese B *** received, with bearing end seems it, a ball under the left scapula and Helene M *** received a ball in the chest, with the height of the sternum. Professor Marc-Henri Thélin, medical examiner, arrived on the spot and can extract at once the projectile from the body of Helene M ***. This ball is given to the commander of the cantonal police force. Towards the end of the morning, the two bodies are transported in car at the Institute of pathological anatomy, with Lausanne, for autopsy. The macabre convoy is escorted by two motorcylcists of the gendarmerie. Practiced in the afternoon of the June 20th, the autopsy concludes in both cases with a death caused by a projectile from short gauge 22. It does not concern traces of fight nor of rape. Moreover, none of the two young girls was pregnant.

In the night of 19 with the June 20th, towards 0:30, the gendarmes posted with the accesses of the bodies controlled, on the spot of the Crime, a cyclist whose pace had appeared suspect to them. In the current of the morning of the June 20th 1949, one will discover at this last a gun Flobert of small gauge and two casings. Professor Marc Bischoff, director of the Institute of scientific police, with Lausanne, is in charge of the compared expertise of the seized weapon and the projectile extracted the body of one of the victims. He concludes from it that the accused balls cannot be drawn by the weapon which the suspect was carrying and this last is slackened.

As of 6:00, the June 20th 1949, the police force of Vaud contacted the Freibourgese police force, with Semsales. The commander of the police force cantonal of Vaud also went to Châtel-Saint-Denis, where it met the Préfet, the Examining magistrate, the commander of the Freibourgese police force cantonal as well as the chief of the police force of Freibourgese safety. Consequently, the research undertaken in collaboration by the police forces of Vaud and Freibourgese continues without disabling: the investigators control and question many people who were announced to them by the population as being suspect, as well on the territory of the canton of Freiburg as on that of the canton of Vaud. The country is furrowed by gendarmes, which one notes that they move with their personal motor cycles to act more quickly.

Announced unknown

During these investigations, one announces an individual who was lying in grass, the June 19th, towards 11:50 and 14:00, to about thirty meters of the right roadside, close to the bridge of the Corjon. At this place, the gendarmes discovered under a bush, in the hedge, a Tribune of Lausanne, Sunday June 19th 1949. Also the June 19th 1949, towards 15:20, whereas they were between the road Semsales - Maracon and the Broye and that they gained the " large creux" river, in which they were going to bathe, an inhabitant of Rogivue and an inhabitant of Ecoteaux saw, at a distance of two approximately hundred meters, an individual which moved away from the wood of the Corjon, that is to say place of the attack, through fields, in direction of the Broye. They cannot give a description of this man, being given the long distance which separated them.

The first testimonys and determination of the hour of the crime

Many people circulated on the road Semsales - Maracon in the current of the afternoon of the June 19th 1949. By recutting their testimonys, the investigators try to reconstitute the course of the victims and to determine the hour Crime.

Both attended the Vêpres and decided to go for a walk immediately afterwards. Their intention is to go to foot to the ball of the village fair of Bossonnens. With 14:20, they leave Semsales in direction of Maracon. One evaluates at approximately forty minutes the time necessary to make with foot the way which separates Semsales from the bridge of the Corjon, while walking to good pace.

Between 15:00 and 15:05, a group of four people passes to bicycle on the bridge Corjon. These walkers noticed traces of blood on the road and supposed that it could be a question of the fall of a cyclist or a motorcylcist. Other witnesses however affirm to have met towards 15:45, in lower part of Rogivue, two young girls, whose description corresponds to that of the victims, which moved towards Maracon.

The police force also carries out the hearing of all those which were this day near the places. None of these people noticed anything: no cries, nor of shots.

The business of May 8th, 1949

The Murder of the young people Marie-Therese B *** and Helene M *** points out an aggression whose another young girl of Semsales was victim, Sunday May 8th 1949, around 13:00. This fixed price took place on the same road, but with leaving Semsales in direction of Rougève, on Freibourgese territory. Whereas it was only two away meters, an unknown drew on it with a Pistolet from gauge 6 mm, fortunately without causing serious wound, then violated it. Considering the wound and the place where the ball was placed did not present any danger to the health of the young girl, the Juge Freibourgese considered it preferable not to extract the Projectile immediately.

After the Crime of the June 19th, however, the victim of the May 8th is put at contribution. It gives a description of its attacker and will be systematically confronted with the suspects or the photographs of individuals having occupied the police services for sex cases. Monitorings are also exerted the Sunday June 26th 1949 its involved, so that it can indicate its attacker with the investigators, if it would see it. This operation will not produce interesting results, being given the great multitude of curious which do not cease, all these Sundays, to go on the spot of the drama. Despite everything that, it will be able to never recognize its attacker.

The business becomes extensive

The June 23rd 1949, one sends to the communes of the posters of large size diffusing the descriptions obtained, in their enjoignant to placard them with the public pillar. These posters promise moreover a reward of thousand francs to any person providing of the information allowing the arrest of the culprits, by guaranteeing the anonymity of the adviser who would express the desire of it. A similar opinion was also distributed by station to 403 households on territory of Vaud and 3085 households on Freibourgese territory. As of the June 24th 1949, one also writes to the directors lunatic asylums and to the salesmen of weapons.

Various incidents or aggressions, listed September 15th 1942 with the June 30th 1949, offer a similarity with the businesses of the May 8th and the June 19th 1949. The investigations on this subject do not bring however of additional indices.

In the days which follow the Meurtre immediately, the police force checks the alibi of all the individuals having had mesh to leave with justice for violent acts or in sex cases, as that of all those which the Rumeur shows. Too much often, the police force is launched on false tracks and when it holds a suspect, he is quickly cleared or, at the very least, the elements miss to proceed to its inculpation.

The expertises of firearms, in particular, play a great part, since the stripes observed on one of the balls of the June 19th make it possible to exclude from many weapons seized near the suspects. The weapon of the crime will never be found. In addition, the ball of the victim of the May 8th will be extracted and compared with the projectiles of the June 19th. It is not however possible, according to professor Bischoff, to determine with certainty if the balls of the June 19th were drawn consequently arms that the ball with the May 8th.

In the final analysis, research will concentrate on a main suspect, inhabitant Semsales, of which the culpability could however never be established. Indeed, the alibi which it provides really could not be questioned, even if testimonys relating to it are contradictory.

One suspect also a British citizen who placed with the Inn of Star, with Promasens, in the night of the 18 with the June 19th 1949. Via Scotland Yard, one will learn that it is about an extremely eccentric citizen, 65 years old. The opinion of the police force of Eastbourne, where he lives, is that he would be the last person to be able to make any act of violence. Like it with the easy feather and is pricked to be a detective amateur, this original will write the September 15th 1950 a very detailed letter, not free from a certain involuntary humor, in which it gives councils to the " Federal police suisse" …

Questions without answer

Many questions remain unanswered: Was the author of the Crime one unbalanced (Sadique) and the same one for the two businesses? The Crime has in the two made cases one Sunday, at the beginning of the afternoon, and the attacker of the May 8th declared with its victim: " I you reverrai". It could be a question of a mistake for the second business, Helene M *** carrying a jacket whose cut and color offer much resemblance to that the victim of the May 8th carried. Considering were the contradiction of testimonys concerning the hour of the Crime, the two victims of the June 19th conveyed? Is it about in love gotten rid of? In this case it would have supervised the young girls, who initially went to the station to consult the schedule and made the decision to go to foot to the village fair Bossonnens only at the last minute. The individual who was seen towards 11:45 close to the places of the crime and that which was seen in the vicinity towards 14:00, which could be the same one, identified forever, like the unknown which was seen after 15:15 moving away from the wood of the Corjon, place of the Crime, through fields in direction of the Broye.

The legal Enquête is from now on closed for a long time, but the historical Enquête starts.

Polemics

It is perhaps necessary to still announce an aspect generally neglected in the treatment of this painful business. Collaboration between the police force of Vaud, in load of the investigation since the crime had proceeded on the territory of its canton, and organizes it canton of Freiburg from which the victims came did not function in an exemplary way. The investigators of Vaud considered a Freibourgese culprit almost exclusively. For the impotent Freibourgese police officers, investigations more pushed in territory of Vaud would have perhaps revealed tracks which were ignored and which are forever unobtrusive today.

Film drawn from the business

the Poison, the crime of Maracon , documentary, carried out by Stephan Goël, 2003.

Literature

Micheline Answers, Assassinées in Maracon… Sunday, June 19, 1949 , Editions of Sarine, 2006.

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