Yonne disappearances

The Yonne disappearances (French: Affaire des disparues de l'Yonne) is a French criminal case involving the abduction and murder of at least eight women and girls between 1975 and the 2000s around Auxerre, in the Yonne department. The numerous failures of the justice system and the child protection system have made it one of the most well-known cases in France. The minister of justice at the time, Marylise Lebranchu, stated in 2002 that "the Yonne case is indeed a series of errors and malfunctions. Despite the disappearance of several young women and teenage girls in the late 1970s, housed in DDASS homes, few people were concerned as their families were not very present and did not have the means to publicize the case. Also the homes did not report the disappearances to the authorities, having concluded that it was a case of a runaway despite the victims' limited autonomy. After more than twenty years of unsolved disappearances, Pierre Monnoir and Jeannette Beaufumé spearheaded the media attention surrounding the case, appearing on the TF1 program "Perdu de vue" (Lost from Sight), which revived the investigation that had been repeatedly dismissed by the courts. Serial killer Émile Louis was arrested and imprisoned in 2000 following information he provided to investigators. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004 for the murders of seven women and girls. A bus driver and town councilor in Seignelay, he had nevertheless been strongly suspected by a gendarme, Christian Jambert, in 1984, the subject of a report that was never acted upon. Émile Louis had received a first conviction in 1983 and another in 1989 in the Var region for indecent assault of a minor. Several dozen disturbing disappearances remain unsolved around Auxerre, dating from 1965 to 1990. Other cases of pimping, kidnappings and murders in the...