COLD CASE Justice for Christelle

For 18 years, a pair of maverick lawyers helped a mother hunt for her daughter's killer

- Lucy Ash

Christelle Blétry quickly adjusted her hair in the mirror, then shouted "Goodbye!" to her parents, Marie-Rose and Gilles, before slamming the front door. It was cold that evening of 27 December 1996, and the 20-year-old with a dark bob and wide smile, wearing the new jeans she got for Christmas, looked forward to spending some time with her friends.

Christel le, her parents, and younger siblings lived in the small town of Blanzy, near the Burgundy wine routes of east-central France. She loved tennis, dancing in nightclubs and ballads by Celine Dion and French singer-songwriter JeanJacques Goldman. She volunteered for the Restos du Coeur charity and was planning to train in Lyon as a paediatric nurse.

That evening, Christelle hung out at her friend Séverine’s apartment in the town centre, along with three guys who were also close friends, enjoying a movie and chatting over potato chips and a few beers. At about midnight, as Christelle headed out for the 15-minute walk home, she said her goodbyes. It was the last time she was seen alive.

“Talk to her friends again,” the officer advised Marie-Rose Blétry when she called the police the next morning. He sounded bored. But Christelle’s mother was in a panic after finding her daughter’s bed empty. She called the hospitals and probed Séverine.

“Christelle said she was worried about her ex-boyfriend who was stalking her,” Séverine told Marie-Rose who, now desperately anxious, called the police several more times. Finally, they asked her to come to the station.