• In France, a child is reported missing every twelve minutes.
  • Last year, 43,202 disappearances of minors were recorded throughout France.
  • On the occasion of the International Day of Missing Children, 20 Minutes looks back at the cases that have never been solved, sometimes even fifty years after the fact.

In 2022, 43,202 disappearances of minors were reported in France. That's one every twelve minutes. 95% of them correspond to runaways, according to figures published Thursday by the 116,000, on the occasion of the International Day of Missing Children. In detail, 544 disappearances are the result of parental abductions and 1,140 are considered "disturbing disappearances". Some have never been elucidated. 20 Minutes looks back at some of them.

Yves Bert, one of the oldest cold cases

This is certainly one of the oldest cases ever solved in France. A curly little blonde head, Yves Bert was only 6 years old when he disappeared in Lyon in 1977. It was February 3. His brother Yannick was waiting for him at the end of the Mazenod school. Their mother had to, as every evening after work, join them on the way home. But that day, she found only her eldest in front of the establishment. Yves, who had left school with a little friend, vanished in the space of a few minutes.

The boy's parents searched relentlessly for him, putting up posters on the walls of the city, promising not to press charges against an alleged kidnapper. In vain: no one came forward. Ten months later, they received a letter from a crow informing them that the child was alive and well. Since then, nothing. Forty-six years later, his disappearance remains an enigma. In 2017, his mother, then 70 years old, confided to the Parisian "to be afraid of dying without knowing".

Nathalie Mazot, forty years of mystery

She had brought with her her new white skirt and a Serge Lama cassette, the last gifts her mother gave her. On November 6, 1982, Nathalie Mazot, a 14-year-old girl, was allowed to leave her home for minors in Bron (Rhône) to visit her older sister for a weekend. But the teenager with long brown hair never returned from her trip to Lyon.

At the time, the police thought it was a runaway and gave little importance to the case. It will take twenty-five years for the file to be exhumed. In 2008, an investigation was opened for "kidnapping and sequestration of a minor". This time, the police will be interested in the owner of a former dubious bar in Old Lyon. The man knew both sisters. The eldest was used to "hostess" there. The little girl sometimes accompanied him. It is even said that the interested party with the sulphurous reputation did work to wall the cellar of his establishment. From there to wanting to hide a body there? The court ordered in 2015 to continue the search and to search the basements. Which doesn't work. The file has been definitively closed.


Ludovic Janvier kidnapped in the street

On March 17, 1983, Ludovic and his two brothers were given the mission to buy cigarettes for their father. On the way home, the boys came across a man wearing a motorcycle helmet and work blue. A stranger, who according to several witnesses, asks them to help him find his dog. Jerome and the youngest Nicolas leave in one direction. Ludovic, aged six, leaves the other, dragged by the hand of this mysterious biker. This is the last time he will be seen in Saint-Martin-d'Hères (Isère).

Two years later, speleologists, on an expedition to a cave located in the heart of the Vercors, discovered the skeleton of a child. His skull was smashed. But investigators are unable to identify the victim. In 1988, the court closed the case and ordered the destruction of the bones. However, the investigation was reopened ten years later, before a second case was dismissed in 2014. But the family does not abdicate. In a final twist in 2015, the justice decided to reopen the investigation. Today, the file has been transferred to the Nanterre pole, in charge of cold cases.

Charazed Bendouiou, the indifference of the investigators

On the Internet page dedicated to him, a note signed by his sister Ferrouze: "We do not forget you. Kisses and happy birthday wherever you are. It has been nearly 36 years since Charazed Bendoui gave any sign of life. On July 8, 1987 in Bourgoin-Jallieu, the 10-year-old girl went down to the bottom of her building to empty the garbage, as her mother asked her. It is barely 13 p.m. She runs, stays to play for a few minutes because the sky begins to tear. Despite the storm, the little girl does not go up. Her family will never see her again.

What happened to him? His disappearance took place almost in general indifference. In police stations, his face does not even appear alongside other missing minors. The investigation is closed after two years, without the family being notified. She learned this in 2003. "For sixteen years, no one looked for my sister," denounces Ferrouze, who then takes over the investigations alone. Charazed was eventually placed on the missing persons index in 2005. It will take another twelve years for his entourage to be received by an investigating judge. Today, his parents "live waiting for his return." "They kept our apartment in the hope that Charazed would call," concludes her eldest.



Yannis Moré disappeared at the age of three

"From the window, I could see them having fun. It was the first time they asked to go beyond the house, "recalls Pascaline Moré in the columns of Provence. On May 2, 1989, the life of the family, recently settled in the town of Ganagobie (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), changed. Yannis, only three years old, disappears while building a cabin with his brothers. A few seconds of inattention. The little "shy and reserved" escaped the vigilance of his elders to go see the neighbor's puppies.

Accident, kidnapping or murder? The police do not rule out any leads. The surroundings are scrutinized. Without success. A year and a half later, the child's shoes were discovered a kilometer from his house. Then his anorak, a sock and his underwear. Yannis remains nowhere to be found. If his family has always favored the theory of kidnapping, the investigators have never been able to prove it. Nor to unravel the mystery surrounding his disappearance.

Aurore Pinçon, from the fugue to the Fourniret track

The mystery has been going on for nearly 28 years. On December 21, 1995, 14-year-old Aurore Pinçon left the family home in Guérande (Loire-Atlantique). The 1.60 m teenager left on a bike, his green schoolbag on his back, leaving a letter in his room. The gendarmerie therefore favors the thesis of a fugue but Aurore will never give any sign of life again. Did she have a bad encounter? Three investigating judges succeeded one another without any lead. That of Michel Fourniret was evoked, the serial killer having already kidnapped a schoolgirl in the department five years earlier. But there is no evidence to confirm this. The photo of Aurore Pinçon, as well as a second voluntarily aged, has long appeared on the posters of missing children.

The Marion Wagon Enigma

The blue eyes and blond square of the young Marion Wagon, whose portrait was massively distributed, are well known to the general public. The girl was 10 years old at the time of her disappearance on 14 November 1996 in Agen, Lot-et-Garonne. She vanishes on her way home from school, when only 400 meters separate her from the family home.

The case is taking on a national dimension. His death marks the France of the 1990s. The girl's smiling face appears on the millions of milk cartons sold in supermarkets. Despite a significant mobilization, the investigation stalled and no trace of the child, missing for more than twenty-five years, was found. "This is the great mystery of my life. It's an injury," admitted last year Commander Roland Courdesses, who handled the investigation at the time. Since the summer of 2022, this case has been dealt with by the national pole of "cold cases" which depends on the jurisdiction of Nanterre.

Where is Mathis Jouanneau, kidnapped by his father?

It has been nearly twelve years since he gave any sign of life. On September 4, 2011, eight-year-old Mathis Jouanneau disappeared in Caen after being kidnapped by his father. After three months on the run, the latter was finally arrested in the Gard and sentenced in 2015 to twenty years in prison for the kidnapping and sequestration of his son. During the trial, he claims to have entrusted his child to people of trust, without giving further explanation.

In 2022, the investigation is relaunched after the broadcast of an episode of Call for witnesses on M6. Three anonymous people then appear, attesting to having seen a homeless person in Avignon who physically corresponds to the aged portrait of Mathis Jouanneau. Leads that have so far given nothing while an investigation against X for homicide is still open.

Axelle Moerckel, ten years of silence

On the evening of April 13, 2013, she went to join her friends to party in the Bastille district of Paris. Axelle Moerckel, 16, was supposed to sleep at a girlfriend's house, she never came home the next day. "Only one of her friends received a call from her in May 2013. The mobile phone she had used belonged to a man who said he knew where she was, but refused to say more, "testified in 2016 her mother Marie-Pierre to 20 Minutes. The teenager sometimes called herself Samira Bouraga, which could have suggested that she had converted to Islam or wished to distance herself from her previous identity. But investigators will hit a wall. This lead will not yield anything, any more than research abroad.

Habib Nedder, one of the youngest missing

Habib was 13 months old the last time his mother, Jennifer Dana, held him. It was January 2014 and his father, Mehdi Nedder, picked him up in Toulouse to spend the weekend with him. He never brought it back. The body of Mehdi Nedder was found, decapitated, three months later, in the river Ariège in L'Hospitalet-près-L'Andorra. But no trace of the boy. Since then, his mother has been moving heaven and earth to find out what has become of him. She clings to the hope that her ex-companion was able to entrust him to an acquaintance in Algeria, her country of origin, before dying. In April 2016, the gendarmes of Ariège released an aged portrait of little Habib. Last summer, police officers from the SRPJ of Toulouse conducted new excavations in the Ariège. In vain.




  • Society
  • Disappearance
  • Minor
  • Child
  • Cold case