an association to relaunch “unsolved cases”

On the interactive map of France and Belgium, hundreds of colored dots represent the geography of the dramas. They are purple for disappearances of minors, orange for adult victims of crime, and green for investigations into the causes of a suspicious death. More than 400 files are associated with it, with a portrait, a date and a summary of the events, as well as the police or gendarmerie service seized.

This Benedictine work was not carried out by the Ministry of Justice or any other state service. It is the work of a crepe maker from Nantes, built “in the depths of Finisterre” where he has no memory of a single crime, not even the slightest news of interest. At 33 years old, Romain Diverres is one of the heads of the Association for Assistance to Victims of Unresolved Cases (Avane), a structure created on 1^Ahem July thanks to the initiative of Benoit de Maillard.

A chemist by training, he graduated from the renowned Lausanne Institute of Criminology before becoming a trainer and co-author of a reference work (Forensic police. Experts at the heart of the crime sceneHachette, 2017, co-written with Sébastien Aguilar), this former forensic technician for fifteen years created Avane after “a personal and professional assessment” which leads you to wonder: how many unsolved cases In France, where and how are they recorded? While scouring enthusiast forums, he discovered “Romain’s fantastic work”who you contact.

Experts in ballistics, law, psychology…

The project, started at the end of 2023, today has five poles: “Victims” (21 members), “Students” (two members), “Passionate” (six members) and, above all, “Experts” which brings together 28 people in fields as varied as ballistics, law or psychology.

Gaëlle Saulé-Mercier is the head of the division “Victims.” For fifteen years, this public community archivist, historian by training and specialist in 19th century news^my century, focuses on criminological issues, to the point of having produced a documentary broadcast by France Télévisions on the Yvonne Chevallier case, named after the wife of the deputy mayor of Orleans, acquitted after the murder of her husband in 1951. Also discovering Romain Diverres’ online cartography, Gaëlle Saulé-Mercier informed the young man of the Mylène Chopineau case, a homicide committed near Bourges in 1994.

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