INTERVIEW. Disappearance of Marion in Agen: « we can consider action against the State » according to parents’ lawyer Me Catala

In recent years, the parents of Marion Wagon were rather discreet. Michel Wagon responded to requests from the M6 ​​group. Need to talk?

It’s more like a desire to shout what’s on his mind. Little by little, we are given some openings in this file, we realize that a series of errors have been made. It is completely unbearable for them. I guess he has to consider that for, maybe not 25 years, but at least a long time, things weren’t done as they should have been, especially with the lack of DNA.

In the disappearance of little Marion, one has the impression that things did not go well in this case from day one. It’s the case ?

The public prosecutor considered that it was necessary to privilege the track of the fugue. While obviously, it was enough to listen to Marion’s environment to understand that she was a perfectly balanced girl.

So it was a waste of time. It was later considered that the parents had to be supervised by the SRPJ, which was absolute bullshit.

They were then replaced by gendarmes. As they say, during 3-4 months of investigation, some tried to do a fairly important background work and the Wagon couple trusted them completely. Except that without anyone telling us why, these people were thrown out for the benefit of the gendarmes, this is where we see the Marion cell appear with 40 active gendarmes.

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Today, where is this investigation?

We have a chance now, which we had before, but these are new phenomena. The current examining magistrate of Agen is a very competent man despite the fact that he arrives in this current file. He nevertheless considered that things still had to be done in this case. However, after 25 years, when you don’t have the victim’s DNA, it seems impossible. He has good will. Marion’s parents are well aware that this may not be enough.

When you say « there are things to do », what are you talking about?

We are talking about things that should have been done much earlier. I can’t tell you exactly what it is for obvious reasons, but some things were worth checking out. He is going to do it.
These are checks on technical points, testimonials…
Someone who kidnaps a girl to commit sexual abuse, which is what one can imagine, this person has certainly already shown his dangerousness or is in a position to do so, so all the guys who were around Agen who were suspected of being dangerous, it has at times been thoroughly examined and at times it has not. There may be checks concerning the large predators which may have gone near Agen in November 1996. There may still be things to do.

Are you thinking of the Fourniret track?

Fourniret is the specialist in sexual dysfunction in its horror. I’m not saying it’s him but it would have been useful to know what he was doing at that time, if we could question him to find out if when he crossed France, he used to go through Agen. His case boils down to two pages in which his wife says it’s not him because at no time is he interested in non-pubescent girls. Except that the demonstration to the contrary has been made. Moreover, the investigators said that this track was not closed. All that is a terrible problem, seals have been made, but not only in the case of Fourniret. 2004-2005, we do what we have to do with the means at hand, but without the daughter’s DNA, so we take the mother’s DNA, so we ended up failing. The gendarmes only work on letters rogatory, the gendarmes do what the judges ask them to do. So when the gendarmes arrived from Belgium and they told the duo of judges it couldn’t be him but they would still have to investigate, they were told: move on, there’s nothing to see.

Very often in this case, we have not had a captain on this ship. Currently, we have one, it’s a chance.

He is trying to dramatically make up for lost time. Besides, I’m afraid he won’t stay long in Agen.

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The most incredible in this case is the absence of Marion’s DNA. How is it possible ?

It is appalling. Initially, the police of the SRPJ will seize Marion’s hair. They will place them in places specially adapted to the durability of the DNA. The years pass and we realize at some point that the DNA of the hair no longer speaks. They no longer have bulbs and therefore they are no longer useful. This did not make the investigating judges react, who did not carry out investigations with the DNA of the parents without worrying about whether it would be better before the Wagons moved from Agen, to ask them for toys for the little one, a toothbrush, a scrunchie.

I had to put my foot in the pot to try to analyze other objects belonging to Marion.

And justice has not managed to reconstitute the DNA of the little one?

Of course, this is unique in judicial history. The two judges who ruled the ship for ten years, it was calamitous. Whether from a work point of view and from a human point of view.

I attended all the parent hearings, they were treated like dogs. It was an absence of humanity.

In 25 years, they have been heard only 4 or 5 times. Each time, we had to demand that we go to a legal meeting otherwise we would never have been received. The last magistrate in office, she was sickened by this kind of thing. She had told us: “I promise you that every six months, there will be an appointment”. Bad luck for us, she left after eight months. In large criminal cases, the files are listed and put on computer with diskettes. Before 2014-2015, there was no possibility of communicating the file. What poses a terrible problem is the demonstration that the investigating judges never communicated with each other. We never asked questions in Belgium or in Paris because we couldn’t communicate the file. The prosecution, we have never seen it, we have never seen the public prosecutor summon the parents. We were treated like “mutts”.

From the start in this disappearance, the judges had doubts about the parents of the little girl?

They had doubts about a lot of people. But they wasted a lot of time. We agreed that they would do all the necessary investigations, but they wasted a lot of time on the parents. They have been exceeded.

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Now, what are you waiting for?

A question arises for us. The Keeper of the Seals had an initiative with the establishment of a specialized court which was created and which is being applied for unsolved murders. This is centralized in Nanterre. We would be tempted to ensure that this affair escapes from Agen. Only, we came across an examining magistrate who arrived barely six months ago, who is a former examining magistrate of the special chamber of Bordeaux. We are waiting to see. We have a bad conscience to dispossess him of this affair.

As a lawyer, are you tempted to do everything to relocate this file?

Yes and not immediately. As much as if these things had existed fifteen years ago, we would have done so without hesitation. Now, with investigating judges who have tried to shake things up, I want him to be left to work until we get something out of it. The current investigating judge has already met the Wagon parents.
I experienced terrible things with the first two judges. I’ve been in the business for 50 years, I’ve seen a lot of it, but there… One evening, we were summoned to the examining magistrates. I arrive with Marion’s mom and I see guys in suits and sort of cots in the office. We are told that we are going to do a hypnosis session. In other words, without telling us, they had brought in professors from Paris to hypnotize Madame Wagon. Suffice to say that I yelled and it never happened. It is absolutely forbidden in criminal law to hypnotize witnesses, it was an extraordinary opportunity to derail the procedure which was not very muscular.

You say in the report that will be broadcast on Tuesday evening that their life stopped that day, is that your feeling every time you see them?

I took on this case 25 years ago. A lot of water has flowed under the bridges. I have always been attached to these people. The father is a worker, the mother has done everything to raise her children as well as possible. They are simple and respectful people. I never heard them say mean things to those in charge of the investigation.

If nothing has come out during all this time, it is because the State is responsible, it is no longer impossible that we consider action against the State. They have experienced excruciating pain, their lives are ruined.

When there is a fault in the State service, the only possibility is to attack for gross negligence and there is in this case.

So if Marion’s parents wanted to go down this path, would you go with them?

I suggested it. I am one with these people on a voluntary basis, I believe that people’s misfortune should not be remunerated, we are very close. I will try to bring them to the end of this ordeal. We don’t have to harm people who have nothing to do with it, so we might as well do it. The least you can do is to shake up those who have something to do with it.