New twist in the disappearance of Karine Esquivillon. Her husband, Michel Pialle, was arrested this morning in Maché and then placed in police custody by the gendarmes of the Nantes research section.
[Updated June 14, 2023 at 10:44 a.m.] Karine Esquivillon, this 54-year-old woman who has been missing for almost three months in Vendée, will she be found? Hard to say for the moment, but this Wednesday, June 14, her husband, Michel Pialle, was placed in police custody in Nantes according to AFP. The gendarmes of the research section arrested him for “kidnapping and forcible confinement”, and are also conducting a search of the family home.
Is Michel Pialle a new Jonathan Daval? This man had denied for several months being the author of the crime of his wife Alexia before cracking. The 52-year-old Vendéen, he multiplied the interviews by posing as a husband abandoned by his wife. He told Le Parisien that “she was fed up with it here, it’s flat, it lacks culture, she was tired. I think she went south”. For him, she would have left of her own free will. But the investigators do not seem convinced by the hypothesis of a voluntary departure of the mother. They even consider him a suspect.
As a reminder, Karine Equivillon has disappeared from her family home since March 27. After a few messages sent to his children in the days that followed, nothing. The gendarmes doubt that the woman is the author of these SMS, because they would have been issued in the Maché sector. How to explain that she was able to send them while being close to his house, more than a week after his disappearance? The suspicions of the investigation therefore fall on Michel Pialle who could, according to an unestablished scenario, be the author before disposing of the phone which was found without a SIM card in a ditch not far from his house by the mayor. from the village.
The profile of Michel Pialle also motivates the suspicions of the investigation: he has already been convicted on multiple occasions for scams related to his distance selling work, but it is above all a judgment for divorce that makes the investigators wince. In 2003, he was thus described as a man with “a mythomaniacal behavior capable of inventing incredible scenarios”, according to the Parisian.
The children of Karine Esquivillon and her relatives seemed to have little taste for the version of Michel Pialle. On BFMTV, Eva-Louise, one of her daughters, expressed this feeling: “Leaving voluntarily, like that, overnight, without warning, without giving a reason, it does not look like her”. At Le Parisien, the eldest of the children shared this feeling, judging “impossible that my mother could have left leaving the youngest two. not leave like that, especially without his children… We are all very worried.
Michel Pialle could stay 48 hours in police custody as provided by law before possibly being brought before a judge. This twist comes as the gendarmes believe they detect contradictions in the husband’s speech. The thesis of a departure without taking his car seems strange, because according to the Parisian, “the investigators have multiplied in recent weeks the checks with the taxi company in the sector without finding any trace of a professional who was able to pick up Karine”. Michel Pialle, however, argued that his wife would have taken “a taxi or an Uber”.
He is still presumed innocent in this case, but the investigation takes a new turn. The 50-year-old has always denied his involvement, whether in front of television cameras or law enforcement. Few mobile potentials are mentioned in the press apart from the thesis of a family conflict.
“Since the disappearance of Karine Esquivillon, Michel Pialle, her husband, and their children, have been victims of numerous acts of malevolence online likely to characterize the offense of cyber-harassment”, explained Antoine Ory to BFMTV, the lawyer for Michel Pialle, announcing to file a complaint for cyberbullying, on June 2.
According to the family lawyer: “These acts are committed by individuals, some of whom have already been identified and will soon be the subject of a criminal complaint, while others, acting cowardly under anonymous, must be identified.”
These online messages are flooding in as the investigation unfolds and evidence comes to light that contradicts the husband’s testimony. They thus crystallize the suspicions of Internet users about the disappearance of his wife. Michel Pialle is the main suspect in this case as the last person to have seen Karine Esquivillon. He had confided in the cameras of TF1 at the end of April: “It’s been almost two months since we’ve had any news. Yes, I have more than one fear. All we want is to have news from Karine. Just that will be enough.”
A judicial investigation was opened on April 17 by the public prosecutor of La Roche-sur-Yon for “kidnapping and forcible confinement”. The research section of the Nantes gendarmerie is still carrying out investigations in the vicinity of Maché (Vendée), the town of the disappeared, by probing a lake or ditches in the region for example. A sign that the gendarmes favor the surroundings of the home to the thesis of a distant departure of Karine Esquivillon.
On Sunday, May 28, Karine Esquivillon’s first two children spoke on the show Sept à Huit: “She left without giving any… well, without really taking a suitcase. If she had left like that, she would have called me. That’s where it’s wrong. I don’t understand, I’m thinking. I don’t understand why she left without calling me,” explains Antoine, 27. Her big brother Thomas is on the same wavelength: “Even if she had left, for me, she would have given news. Today, it’s the wait, the hardest thing I find. Not knowing the the smallest little thing, that’s what’s the hardest.”
According to the call for witnesses issued by the Loire-Atlantique gendarmerie, Karine Esquivillion is 1m67 tall, has black, mid-length and curly hair. She is of European type and has a long tattoo of seven fleur-de-lis on her loins. When she disappeared, she wore fancy gold earrings and rings on both hands. If you have information to help investigators, contact 0800 877 668 (freephone number – 24/7).
Four days after the disappearance of Karine Esquivillon, her youngest daughter receives travel photos which would prove the thesis of a voluntary departure. An additional SMS even suggests that the mother intends to go abroad without indicating a destination. But these pictures of the Dune du Pilat challenge the rest of the family: “There was a fire on it last year when it really burned down. It’s really intact. The photo must date from before, it doesn’t don’t stick”, explains Antoine to TF1. The eldest has a good intuition, because after a quick search, it turns out that Karine is not the source of his photos: one comes from an online newspaper and the other comes from an amateur photography blog.
Eva-Louise Pialle, one of Karine Esquivillon’s daughters, testified on BFM TV, indicating that her mother was “very suspicious” and that a disappearance was “not like her”. She asked her mother to “make a sign” in order to “free her family”. “If she wants to come back, my door is open and dad’s door too,” assured the young woman, who does not exclude voluntary disappearance.
“Leaving like that, for me it doesn’t make sense” indicated, Thursday, May 25 on BFM TV, Adélaïde Esquivillon, Karine’s sister. She describes the missing as a “fearful, careful woman”. According to her, Karine Esquivillon could not have left since she was still taking care of some of her children, in particular her 14-year-old son, who is deaf. “I also thought of a bad meeting”, assures his sister.
Two theses exist: firstly, that of a runaway, voluntary, defended by Michel Pialle, who reported the disappearance of Karine Esquivillon; secondly, that of a kidnapping, an offense for which a judicial investigation was opened by the La Roche-sur-Yon prosecutor’s office. The missing woman’s spouse said on BFM TV that she “left voluntarily, that’s for sure.” But his account is troubled by the chronology of events.
According to information from Ouest-France, Karine Esquivillon, who has been missing since March 27, would have exchanged messages with Michel Pialle until March 31. What happened during those four days? Mystery. The man then did not report the disappearance until April 3, a week to the day after. A delay that questions. “I was convinced that she was going to come back,” he defended himself. Especially since, according to his words, the mother of the family would have warned of his departure.
According to him, the youngest daughter of the couple received a last message from Karine Esquivillon on March 31: “She told my daughter that she would not hear from her for a few days because she was going to a hot country.” Two days later, Michel Pialle reported the disappearance of his wife to the gendarmerie. A troubling timing for justice.
The police searched the family home: phones and computers were seized, the ashes from the fireplace were analyzed and the well was probed. The husband’s weapons were confiscated during the investigation: “I had weapons at home, because I practiced shooting, but they were all declared, I do not feel accused, I opened my door without fear ” he explained.
If a week has passed between the disappearance of Karine Esquivillon and the report to the gendarmes, a new aspect of the file has been revealed by BFM TV: the continuous news site claims that one of the adult children of the mother family, from a first relationship, also contacted the military in turn, on April 8 or 9. According to the information obtained, he would have liked to have confirmation that Michel Pialle had indeed reported the disappearance of his mother. A check that questions the investigators, especially since the child would have been very worried.
Another disturbing element in the file: Karine Esquivillon’s laptop was found on April 9, 13 days after the forties was last seen. Discovered by chance, without a SIM card, in a ditch by the mayor of the town, the phone was “perfectly clean and dry”, with “a very good battery level”. Enough to suggest that the phone had only been there for a few hours. Unable to maintain a high battery level for several days, even without use.
At the start of the investigation, Michel Pialle detailed to the police his last day with Karine. He is the last to have seen her: “I was at the bottom of my land trying to find my cat who had run away, when I returned to the house, there was no trace of Karine. .” A few minutes later, he received this text message, as he testified in Le Figaro: “I’m leaving, I can’t take it anymore to be two but no longer as a couple, they’re picking me up, I’ll pick up some stuff .” The couple had left the Paris region 18 years ago to settle in Vendée.
Michel then found that his wife had disappeared with clothes, hygiene tools and the family record book. The husband is convinced of her return: “I admit that I did not notice her preparing to leave, but since she is a fearful person, I told myself that in three or four days she would be feedback.” The two lived under the same roof despite being separated for four years. Karine had not worked for several years to take care of their house and the two youngest children, including her deaf son. Her husband resells old objects from their home.
Ouest France revealed the information on May 30: Michel Pialle was implicated for a fake gold bullion scam in 2021. He was also convicted nine times between 1998 and 2021 for “fraud” cases, “forgery and use of forgery” and “counterfeit”. This man does distance selling on his own. He has owned his company since 2009.
Justice did not implicate him after several advanced searches in the family home. His hunting weapons and cell phones were seized for the purpose of the investigation. Michel Pialle is therefore presumed innocent at this stage of the case.
Quoted since the start of the affair, Michel Pialle responded to several media. With France 3, he said he was “convinced that she left voluntarily”, listing to France Bleu that “she took money, her wallet, her handbag… A bunch of things, which she had already prepared in advance, I think.” Faced with the charges against him, the man recalls that the investigators have already searched his garden as well as the wells of the property. “They searched everything,” he said. Instead, he calls on the missing person to give a sign of life: “What we want is to know if she’s fine. If she doesn’t want to see us anymore, fine, but let her say so. At least, We’ll be reassured. If she wants to start a new life, let her tell us. Of course, it will take us months, even years to recover, even for the children. We won’t judge her, it’s her choice, but at least we’ll all be set free.”
Eva-Louise, the eldest of Karine Esquivilion, is distraught: “I have no more news from her, not even a message for my birthday when I have a close relationship with her. A few weeks before, she spoke to come see me in the south with my father.” The laborious progress of the investigation does not help this family: “I am totally lost, I did not expect my mother to disappear, I do not understand.”
His daughter also does not believe in voluntary departure: “My mother took care of my little deaf brother a lot, she did homework with him, she would never have let him go. My mother did not even know how to put on loudspeaker , then I can assure you that she would not know how to remove a SIM card.” One of his other children shares his dismay: “We have no leads, it’s terrible. We don’t know if we should mourn or hope that she comes back.”
Karine Esquivillon’s sister doubts a runaway. “I don’t see my sister leaving like that, in the middle of the afternoon, before the children come home from school (…) She liked to be at home, with her children,” she said on BFM TV. “If she wanted to go rest somewhere, she could have talked about it with her children, kissed them before leaving. We can say things and not run away,” she added, indicating also not to be at the aware of the supposed separation of the disappeared from her husband. “Apparently, Michel Pialle says that they are separated more or less, even living under the same roof,” she said, referring to a “very discreet” sister about her personal life.
Relatives of the missing also spoke in Le Figaro. For them, “Karine is a homebody with an underdeveloped social life, extremely fearful and suspicious”. So, the hypothesis of an online meeting, as mentioned by a neighbor, does not hold for her relatives: “She would never have followed a person, it’s impossible. In addition, she hated social networks or remote dating so I don’t see her chatting all night with one person.”
