They simply wanted to take a “romantic” walk after the meal, but Véronique and Laurent Blond never came home. This French couple on vacation in Madeira, Portugal, had not been found since March 16. Three weeks after their disappearance, two bodies were discovered on Friday April 5 in the area where they had gone hiking.
Two separate investigations were opened, in France and Portugal. DNA analyzes are underway to confirm that these are indeed the remains of this couple of bakers, originally from Beaumont-de-Lomagne (Tarn-et-Garonne).
How long have the couple been missing?
Laurent and Véronique Blond, a French couple aged 58 and 56, had come to spend a week of vacation on the island of Madeira in Portugal, with their youngest daughter, Johanna, aged 27. Arriving on March 12, the family was to spend ten days there, before returning to France on March 21.
But on March 16, the couple disappeared after going for a “little hike” in Sao Vicente. “They left the rental house we were staying at around 2:45 p.m. They were dressed very simply, they wanted to go for a walk, simply discover the surroundings of Sao Vicente. It was the day after a fairly tiring hike,” Johanna, their daughter, told our colleagues at La Dépêche du Midi. After several hours without news, she raised the alarm. Since then, the couple has not been found.
The disappearance was immediately taken seriously by the Portuguese authorities, who deployed significant resources to try to find the couple. A few days after their disappearance, the search was interrupted due to weather conditions.
How were the bodies discovered?
First, it was the body of a woman, in a state of decomposition, which was discovered by a hiker on Thursday, April 4, in a mountainous area of Sao Vicente, a commune in Madeira. The walker, an English national who lives on the island all year round, raised the alarm at the end of the day.
The next morning, Friday April 5, rescuers returned to the site to recover the body, located in a ravine, 150 m below a path. “The condition of the body did not allow us to identify the person, but the clothing, shoes, and probable date of death mean that we are 95%, even 99%, sure that it is of the missing French tourist,” Luis Simoes, the regional commander of the Portuguese police in Funchal, explained to the Parisian.
Also read “95% sure it’s the missing French tourist”: the body of a woman found in Madeira
Around 11 a.m., shortly after bringing up the first body, emergency services discovered a second corpse, that of a man, a few meters further on, in “an area that is difficult to access,” explained Commissioner Joao Gois, at the Lusa press agency.
Information confirmed by the French authorities. “Yesterday, the body of a woman was discovered on a path in the municipality of Sao Vicente in Madeira. In addition, following further research, the corpse of a man was discovered today,” declared Bruno Sauvage, the public prosecutor of Montauban.
The area, very close to the French tourists' rental house, had nevertheless been searched in the days following the couple's disappearance. But no body had been discovered, “due to the rugged terrain and dense vegetation in this location,” he said.
Are the bodies found those of the couple?
For the moment, neither body has been formally identified; DNA analyzes are still in progress. But according to the Portuguese authorities, it could well be the two French tourists, in particular because of "the clothes and the environment where they were found", estimated Commissioner Joao Gois.
On the French side, the Montauban prosecutor wants to be more cautious: “Investigations are underway to formally identify these people and it is therefore impossible to indicate with certainty that they are the couple,” he declared.
Autopsies will be carried out on the two bodies found to identify the causes of death.
Which track is preferred?
Two investigations were opened. The first by the Portuguese authorities who seem, at this stage, to favor the accidental thesis. They say the couple may have wandered off the hiking trail and fell. “We are still investigating,” said Commissioner Joao Gois, but the bodies were “found away from the path, which suggests that they could have fallen” several dozen meters.
Another investigation was opened in France, by the Montauban public prosecutor's office for "disturbing disappearance". It was entrusted to the Castelsarrasin research brigade and the Beaumont-de-Lomagne gendarmerie. If no leads have been excluded, the investigations carried out in the bakers' house did not make it possible to find any element that could explain the disappearance of the couple, said, in a press release, the prosecutor of Montauban, Bruno Savage.
The couple's daughter, Johanna, dismisses the theory of voluntary disappearance: “Who would want to disappear on such a small island, it doesn't make sense! “, she confided to Le Parisien a few days after the disappearance of her parents. According to her, it is not an argument that went wrong either: “Everything was fine, my parents are on very good terms, married for 35 years and in love,” she added. Could the couple have had a bad encounter? “The thesis seemed unlikely in the eyes of the police,” continued the young woman.