Nathalie Martin-Laevens “disappeared” on April 13, 1980 in Saint-Clément-des-Baleines, on the island of Ré (Charente-Maritime). She was 14 years old and was never found. Forty-four years after this unexplained tragedy, her half-sister Sandrine Grondin and her relatives launched a call for witnesses with the hope of finding “a sign of life”, or a witness. “I was 5 years old at the time. I'm 49 now and have two daughters. I need to know,” explains Sandrine Grondin who turned to the Assistance and Search for Missing Persons (ARPD) association to relay this message.
“We agreed to help and support this family. A witness might remember something. Nathalie Martin-Laevens could have confided in her classmates,” says Michèle B., volunteer investigator within the ARPD and reservist gendarme. Without a new lead and under the effect of the statute of limitations, the investigation file was destroyed in 2014. “There is nothing left, or almost nothing,” summarizes Sandrine Grondin who never believed in the long-favored lead. by the investigators, that of an accidental drowning: “The ocean would have ended up rejecting his body…”
“She had no reason to run away”
The eldest of four children, Nathalie Martin-Laevens lived at the time in La Ronde, in Vendée, and was at school in Damvix. His mother, Danielle Laevens, still lives there. On April 13, 1980, the teenager went with her uncle and aunt to the Ile de Ré for a fishing trip on foot, near the Baleines lighthouse. She was wearing rubber boots, a blue sweater and dark blue pants. Bored or tired, Nathalie Martin-Laevens ended up returning to the vehicle about an hour before the return of her two loved ones. Since then, the teenager has never been seen again. “His basket and hook were also not found. The car was closed. It was the school holidays, there were people there but no one ever showed up,” explains Sandrine Grondin. At that time, no bridge connected the Ile de Ré to the mainland: “You had to take the ferry,” she also recalls. Despite the investigation and research carried out by the gendarmes and soldiers, no clue has since made it possible to establish the slightest scenario.
Epileptic, Nathalie Martin-Laevens above all had “the joy of living”, insists her half-sister. “She had no reason to run away and did not have – in any case – clothes or money,” she assures. In the summer of 1987, her mother Danielle Laevens was contacted by the gendarmerie to identify the body of a murdered young girl. It wasn't about Nathalie. This traumatic experience remains, to this day, the last contact with the police. Nathalie Martin-Laevens' uncle and aunt are deceased. Only one or more witnesses can now restart this investigation. “I tell myself that she is somewhere, that she is alive. New technologies can perhaps help us, the Internet did not exist at the time,” breathes Sandrine Grondin. Nathalie Martin-Laevens would be 59 years old today.
The ARPD can be contacted 06.75.29.19.34 or by email:
nouvelle-aquitaine@arpd.fr