Blois (France) (AFP) – “I was panicked,” said Tuesday the witness who discovered the “swollen” body of little Inass Touloub, in the summer of 1987 along the A10 motorway, on the second day of the parents’ trial before the Loir-et-Cher Assize Court.

Published on: 03/11/2026 - 1:25 p.m.

Seasonal employee of the operator Cofiroute, Frédéric Laujon, remembered discovering on August 11, 1987 "a blue blanket" on the other side of the guardrails, while mowing the ditches.

Under the blanket, he then discovers what he immediately understands to be a child with a “swollen face” and “closed eyes”.

“We could see that she had died. I was panicked,” said Frédéric Laujon, aged 21 at the time of the incident and now a teacher. “Come quickly, it’s not a doll,” he then said to his colleague.

After the discovery of the body, the gendarmes arrived on site in “around ten minutes”, according to witnesses.

“I intervened when I was very young chef,” remembered Francis Fourcroy, then a member of the Orléans research section.

If the memories are “very distant”, “it was the first time that I discovered a little child so martyred”, he recalled.

The body of the 4-year-old girl bore traces of violence, including burns and scars, notably linked to several human bites.

“It was traumatic to see a little baby like that, it’s the only time I’ve seen a child in that state,” Mr. Fourcroy said.

At the same time, photographs of the body of the little girl found in the ditch were shown to the audience.

The accused remain with their heads bowed, without apparent reaction.

The mother, Halima El Bakhti, aged 72, is on trial before the Loir-et-Cher Assize Court in Blois for torture and barbaric acts leading to death without intention to cause death, alongside the father, Ahmed Touloub, 74, who is appearing for complicity.

Questioned by the president, Ms. El Bakhti confirmed, with difficulty, having said at the time: "it's not possible, it can't be my daughter", without commenting further today on the photographs.

Regarding her current situation, after talking about her pre-trial detention, she said: "it's very hard", before bursting into tears.

The hearing was then suspended.

The parents were identified and arrested in 2018, more than thirty years after the events. They face life imprisonment in one of the oldest French “cold cases” elucidated using DNA.

© 2026 AFP

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