What happened on the night of Friday May 26 to Saturday May 27, 2023 in Morbihan? A 23-year-old woman, named Iris C., was found dead naked in Blavet, Lanester. Autopsy, man in custody… What we know.
The autopsy is formal. Iris C., the 23-year-old young woman found in the Blavet River, in Lanester (Morbihan) on Saturday morning May 27, is indeed dead after the intervention of a third party. At this point, a flagrant criminal investigation against X was opened. If the departmental security of the Lorient center police station had taken charge of the investigations which were continuing this Tuesday, May 30, the Rennes judicial police have now been seized. On the side of the investigation, so far, few elements. However, the autopsy revealed several key pieces of information on Tuesday. Prior to that, a man had been taken into custody and later released on Monday morning. We take stock of what we know.
Last element added to the file, Tuesday, May 30: the result of the autopsy of Iris C. According to the report, there is no doubt that the young woman was indeed killed by a third party. His body, found naked in the water on Saturday morning, showed multiple signs of violence. At the level of the face and more generally of the head, the experts were able to observe traumatic lesions and hematomas. According to their conclusion, which Le Parisien echoes, Iris C. was struck by a blunt object.
Elsewhere on the body, traces of strangulation could also be seen. However, it could not be determined at this stage whether the asphyxiation was caused by strangulation or drowning. Finally, the autopsy revealed that the victim had recently had sexual intercourse, revealed the prosecutor, Stéphane Kellenberger, “without it being possible to affirm the existence of violence in this respect”. It should be noted that toxicological analyzes must still be carried out. Objective: to allow investigators to answer certain questions that are still pending. One can in particular suppose that they will make it possible to determine if the young woman was drugged or if she had ingested substances other than alcohol.
While the victim was last seen alive in the center of Lorient on Saturday morning, his lifeless body was finally found in the neighboring town of Lanester. This Tuesday, May 30, the investigators refocused their research on the wet basin of the port of Lorient, Le Télégramme understands. According to the local daily, readings were taken by police technicians on a fishing boat. The Telegram specifies that the ship in question was “moored to one of the pontoons of the outer port”. Diving teams also searched several locations. A glass and a piece of clothing were said to have been taken out of the water. No confirmation, for the moment, regarding their direct link to the Iris C. case from the authorities in charge of the investigation.
Only one arrest has been made in connection with the case. The individual, a man in his thirties and “close to the family circle of the victim”, was placed in police custody on Sunday evening, the day after the discovery of the body of Iris C. According to the public prosecutor, his custody was above all to verify certain points, this man being the last person to have been seen with the victim still alive. It was then 3:30 a.m. He has since been released on Monday morning. According to Le Télégramme, the young man was “heavily alcoholic” the night of the tragedy.
As reported by Le Télégramme, which collected several testimonies, on Friday May 26, Iris C. spent the evening in a bar located in the city center of Lorient. She would have left at closing time, around 3 a.m. “At the end, she was alone with three guys” who were, “a priori”, not regular customers, reported a bartender from Lorient, echoing his colleagues present the same evening. According to them, Iris C. was “not in her normal state” when she left the establishment.
Still according to a witness whose Le Télégramme reports, Iris would have “walked to the Mercure hotel with these three guys”. The young woman would have “collapsed twice”. And to add: “One of the three men left. The other two stayed. One took her in his arms and carried her like a baby. Afterwards, we did not see her again…”
