Scientific investigations rule out link to missing woman, sleeping tablets in home
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss police, in an update on the case of missing six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia Schepp Friday 25, say scientific investigations have now ruled out two possible trails.
The father taking the girls to Corsica remains the strongest hypothesis, but investigators are now also focusing on the father’s whereabouts and actions between the time he left Switzerland and the time he arrived in Marseille. They renewed their appeal Friday to anyone who was in Corsica the first week of February driving a dark station wagon with Swiss plates, to let them know. Witnesses on Corsica may have confused the two cars, they underscore, complicating inquiries there.
No link to Katia Iritano’s disappearance
Police in cantons Vaud and Fribourg say scientific investigations ordered by public prosecutor Eric Gilliéron show that there was never any telephone contact between father of the twins and Katia Iritano, who went missing from Montbovon in Fribourg 25 January, nor does there appear to have been any communication between the two. This possible thread in the case has now been thrown out.
Police research the disappearance from father’s house of suitcases, bags
Scientific examinations of objects taken from the father’s residence have not turned up any evidence of sleeping tables or other potentially toxic drugs, they say, reducing the likelihood that the girls may have been killed there, by their father.
Police are trying to determine what happened to suitcases and bags that are missing from the father’s house.
Police officer Jean-Christophe Sauterel reminds, in a press release, that a credible witness early in the case gave evidence that the father and his daughters were in his car on the beach at Préverenges, near Morges, Sunday 30 January about 15:30.
Préverenges sits between St Sulpice, where the family lived, and Morges.
Some 15 minutes later his car was located in Morges, thanks to his cell phone. There is no evidence one way or the other about the girls’ presence in the car at this point.
Paucity of information on father’s movements between Switzerland and Marseille, France
There remain large gaps in the information about where the father was and what he was doing between the time he left Switzerland and his arrival in Marseille, and police are pursuing this.
Sauterel notes that “Investigators continue to count on information provided by any possible witnesses, in Toulon, Marseille, Corsica and Switzerland. Anyone who can provide any information about the presence in Corsica of another dark vehicle with Swiss license plates is asked to contact the police commissariat or the nearest police station, or to telephone the Swiss hotline +41 21 644 8231 or the French numéro vert 08 05 01 0707.
St Sulpice man, Canadian, dies under train in southern Italy, twin girls missing
International police alert for witnesses, information: +41 21 644 82 31 or the nearest police station
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two six-year-old twin girls are missing and police in Switzerland have issued a missing persons bulletin for them after their father was found dead in the far south of Italy.
The body of Matthias, the father, a St Sulpice man in his forties, was discovered in Bari, Italy at 23:00 Thursday 3 February, after a train passed over him. Police there are trying to determine if his death was an accident or suicide. The man, who was Canadian, left Switzerland Sunday with his six-year-old twin daughters, at the end of a weekend with them. The girls’ parents were in the process of divorcing. The father had taken them over the Christmas holidays, without incidence.
Swiss police issued a Schengen system SIS international alert 30 January after the trio failed to return to St Sulpice. Police investigations showed the father passed by Annecy, France, near Geneva, then Marseilles 1 February. French and Italian police have been actively working with Swiss authorities, but there has been no news of the girls.
Description of the girls
Alessia: 115 cm, long blond hair, medically corrected glasses with bordeaux-coloured titanium frames, last seen wearing a red, white and pink striped tee-shirt, blue jeans, white jacket with beige lining and black boots.
Livia: 115 cm, long blond hair, last seen wearing a green tee-shirt, a purple ski jacket, bluejeans, Adidas white and pink sports shoes, medically corrected glasses with orange titanium frames.
Description of the father
Average weight, 180 cm tall, blond hair thinning at the front, wearing glasses. Was last seen wearing a smart sports outfit and driving an Audi A6 with Swiss license plates.
Divonne-les-bains, France (GenevaLunch) – A Saturday 11 December carjacking in Divonne, France over the border from Founex, in canton Vaud, Switzerland, is the third in the region since October, according to Dauphine Liberé and 20 Minutes (Fre). The driver left the keys in the ignition while he ran an errand, with his companion sitting in the passenger seat. A man threatened the woman with a gun, then stole the car, an Audi with Swiss plates.
