He had spent part of Saturday evening with the young woman. Tuesday, October 25, Lucas L., a 21-year-old farm worker, was taken into police custody as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Justine Vayrac. The 20-year-old mother had vanished when she left a nightclub in Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze) on the night of Saturday to Sunday.
Very quickly, justice ordered the opening of an investigation, entrusted to the police services of Brive and the judicial police of Limoges.
The investigators first tried to reconstruct Justine’s schedule on the evening of her disappearance. The young woman was out with several friends at “La Charette”, a nightclub in the center of Brive.
Around one o’clock in the morning, she sends a message to her parents: everything is fine, the evening is going smoothly.
But a few minutes later, the young woman would have been nauseous: she would then have gone out to get some fresh air. Lucas L., a young man of 21, whom she knows by sight, offers to accompany her. Around 4 a.m., Justine is seen by a witness in the parking lot of the nightclub. She is accompanied by a man.
And then, nothing.
Auditioned, Lucas L. assures that after having accompanied her outside, Justine would have been supported by other friends.
He also has an alibi: he would have spent the rest of the evening in the company of another young girl, which the person concerned will confirm – before specifying that she would have heard a telephone ringing all night, and that the young man seemed well withdrawn.
For the investigators, he remains, in any case, the last to have seen Justine alive.
During a search of his home, they also found the presence of traces of blood even in his room, and on the knob of the gear lever of his vehicle, and even found the purse, charred, of the disappeared, near his home. Justine’s phone is also found at the suspect’s house.
Tuesday, October 25, Lucas L. is arrested: he tries to flee, before being taken into custody.
Facing the investigators, the suspect begins by denying.
Thursday, according to information from France 3, he admitted for the first time “having raped Justine Vayrac under the duress of another man”, before retracting.
A few hours later, he ends up confessing to having killed the young woman before burying her in a wood. A search took place immediately at the location indicated by the suspect. At the beginning of the afternoon, it is there that the body of Justine Vayrac would have been found.
According to the testimony of Justine’s relatives, Lucas L. was an “acquaintance” of the young mother. “They had seen each other several times in a festive setting, she even participated in evenings at his house with other friends” indicated Marina, Justine’s mother, in the columns of La Montagne.
Thursday afternoon, Lucas L. was transferred to the Limoges courthouse, to be presented to an investigating judge.
In Beynat, the village where he lives, a few kilometers from Brive, it is amazement.
21-year-old Lucas L. works as a farmer in an area of the town, alongside his father. “He has achieved a lot this year. He became a farm manager and passed his truck license,” said a relative of the young man on BFMTV.
It also seems very integrated into local and associative life.
“I know him well. He is a person who has always behaved well”, assures La Dépêche the employee of a restaurant that Lucas L. frequented.
Same story for a player from the local football team, in which the suspect has been fired since the age of 6: “He is a cool and quiet person with a festive spirit. being done some bullshit as a teenager, but nothing too bad“, he testifies in the columns of Parisian.
“He was such a nice young man,” continues a retired Beynat on BFMTV.
However, other witnesses have drawn a completely different portrait of the young man.
“I have known him for years and he has not always had a good reputation here”, blows a resident of Beynat in the Dispatch.
The newspaper says that in the village, Lucas L. was also known for his “turbulent” character and his “impulsivity”. A relative of the young man testifies in the columns of the daily newspaper:
According to information from BFMTV, Lucas L. was also stuck in the processing of criminal records (TAJ).
An inscription in connection with the voluntary fire of an agricultural hangar, which occurred in 2017.
According to La Dépêche, Lucas L. would have been involved at the time in the fire of the barn of his neighbor, Pascal Coste, the current president of the Departmental Council of Corrèze.