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.

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.