Marian Marinescu, the man who killed his wife and daughter in France in 1993, released under supervision. The double murder, elucidated after 28 years

Marian Marinescu, a man of Romanian origin suspected of having killed his wife and daughter and of raping the latter in 1993, in the south-east of France, was placed on “supervised liberty” on Wednesday, after almost three years of detention, pending his trial, announced the lawyers dealing with this case.

By the Observator editorial team on 25.04.2024, 11:09

Marian Marinescu was for a long time sheltered from prosecution in the investigation, because his alibi – he was in Romania at the time of the crimes – was considered solid. Finally, thanks to new genetic analysis techniques, the man, now 75 years old, was indicted in 2021, 28 years after committing the acts.

“Marian Marinescu, accused of murdering his wife and daughter (and raping the latter) in January 1993, was released today under supervised release,” the lawyer of the victims’ sister and aunt, Hervé Gerbi, said in a statement on Wednesday . The suspect’s lawyer, François Saint-Pierre, confirmed to AFP that the septuagenarian, who has been in prison since June 2021 and still maintains his innocence, has been released.

“For several months, the investigation chamber in Isère repeatedly debated the length of detention of Mr. Marinescu in the investigation, which took a new turn in June 2021, with the identification of the DNA of the septuagenarian on the clothes of the victims. Therefore , the civil parties are neither surprised nor shocked by this release under duress”, commented lawyer Herve Gerbi.

A month ago, the civil parties also submitted four requests for additional evidence “which the investigating judge indicated a few days ago that he will approve”, the lawyer emphasized. Therefore, at this stage, Marian Marinescu’s trial is “out of the question”, he stated.

The victims, killed with multiple stab wounds

The bodies of Michèle Chabert, Marinescu’s wife, aged 43, and her daughter Christine, aged 13, killed with multiple stab wounds to the neck, were found on 7 January 1993 in Sassenage, in near Grenoble.

For a long time, Marian Marinescu was not a suspect in the investigation, as his alibi was considered solid, but he was finally indicted in 2021. The investigation took a new turn following new laboratory tests, made possible by technological advances in domain, which revealed numerous traces of his sperm on his daughter’s pants. The suspect’s alibi – his trip to Romania with his son at the time of the crime – also proved weak, according to investigators.

In December, Marian Marinescu appeared before the investigation chamber of the Court of Appeal in Grenoble, via video conference, where he vehemently proclaimed his “innocence” and qualified the accusation as “infamy”. His lawyer said his client faced “a major risk of a miscarriage of justice”.

At the beginning of the case, Marian Marinescu had been questioned, because the two spouses, who worked together in an electronics company, really had problems as a couple. At the time of the double murder, the man was 44 years old and had an apparently infallible alibi: he and his 7-year-old son were in Romania, his native country, to spend the winter holidays. The police checked again and found that Marinescu had indeed been in Romania, but before and after the horrible assassination. Apparently, he would have had time to travel back and forth between his residence in France and Romania. As a result, Marian Marinescu, engineer by profession, former director, was charged with murdering his wife and their 13-year-old daughter, as well as raping the latter.