Woman files lawsuit against the state, alleging serious wrongdoings, thirty-five years following her father's murder, during which Francis Heaulme stands trial.
Accusing the System of Injustice, Daughter of Farm Mechanic Slaughter Victim Sues State
Fed up with the justice system's inaction, Christine Clement, whose elderly father—a farm machinery repairman—was brutally murdered in 1989, has decided to take matters into her own hands. On May 6, our team discovered she has filed a lawsuit against the State, citing appalling blunders in the initial investigation, including years of apathy, missing evidence, and lost seals. The judicial court has acknowledged the filing, setting a hearing for February 2, 2026, to kickstart the legal process.
The Notorious Serial Killer, Francis Heaulme, was initially suspected of the murder, but enjoyed a get-out-of-jail-free card in 2002. Over two decades later, the justice system revisited the cold case due to fresh evidence, leading to Heaulme's re-arrest in 2023, now serving a life sentence for 11 murders. This obscure case was shifted to the national hub for unsolved serial and non-serial crimes in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) in April 2024.
"Justice Denied"
Heaulme was initially implicated in the case back in 1992 following his arrest, where he confessed to murdering Jean-Joseph Clement, only to later retract, maintaining ambiguous statements. The subsequent investigation was swiftly transferred to Reims, where a slew of other cases against Heaulme were unfolding. Strangely, the investigative efforts went dormant afterwards, according to Christine Clement's lawyers, Didier Seban and Marine Allali, until the justice system officially dropped the case on December 18, 2002.
According to the complaint against the State, "nearly all the case seals were lost," with 36 seals unaccounted for. The prosecutor's office in Avignon claims to have sent them to Reims upon the case transfer in 1993, but in 2000, the Reims prosecutor's office, prompted by an investigating judge, couldn't locate these seals. Only the blood group card of Jean-Joseph Clement and a scrap of paper with a phone number were found.
"The justice system must now act with extreme urgency."
Speaking to our team, Didier Seban and Marine Allali explained that Christine Clement's aim with this complaint is to expose the grave errors and injustice suffered in her pursuit of truth and justice. It is unfathomable, they added, that a serial killer case that was pursued would then languish in inactivity for seven years, and eventually be abandoned by the justice system, leaving the civil party to battle for years to have it reinstated.
- Despite the initial suspicion and confession of serial killer Francis Heaulme in the murder of Christine Clement's father, the justice system failed to pursue the case effectively, leading to its official abandonment in 2002.
- The lawsuit filed by Christine Clement against the State highlights the alarming blunders in the initial investigation of her father's murder, including the loss of case seals and years of inactivity, demonstrating the need for a prompt response from the justice system to deliver justice and rectify past mistakes.
