Today, the French authorities proceeded to exhume the remains of a 23-year-old broker, who may have been a victim, in order to re-investigate the case.
She became a global symbol of the fight against sexual violence in the much-hyped trial of her ex-husband and the dozens of men he recruited to rape her without her knowledge, after drugging her beforehand.
Peliko was sentenced in December 2024 to 20 years in prison for the crimes he committed at the family home in Mazan from 2011 to 2020.
He was assassinated in 1991
The exhumation of the young woman, who was raped and murdered in 1991, had been requested by Peliko’s lawyer, Beatrice Zavaro, after her client was considered a suspect in the case. Initially the request was rejected, but last November the Court of Appeal of Versailles gave the “green light”. The exhumation took place today, in a cemetery in the southwestern suburbs of Paris.
Zavaro told AFP she hoped the results of the forensic investigation would exonerate her client.
“It was expected, it happened and now we are waiting for the results,” said Florence Roth, the lawyer for the victim’s family.
The 23-year-old broker was raped and murdered in December 1991, while she had gone to show an apartment to prospective clients. The perpetrator was never found, but suspicions began to be raised against Dominique Pelico after the latter partially admitted his involvement in the attempted rape of another broker, in 1999, also in Paris. The two cases had some similarities.
The results of the analyzes are expected in a few weeks.
