The bone finds in the Tarn are being examined at the gendarmerie’s forensic institute

Mailhoc – 17 July 2026: The search continues in a field near Mailhoc, while the bone fragments discovered on Thursday are being handed over to forensic experts. The Institut de recherche criminelle de la gendarmerie nationale, the criminal investigation institute of the French gendarmerie, must first determine whether the finds are of human origin.

Only then can genetic and anthropological examinations determine whether there is a connection with Delphine Aussaguel. The nurse disappeared during the night of 15 to 16 December 2020 from Cagnac-les-Mines. An identification was explicitly not yet known on Friday. The fragments secured so far also do not allow any reliable conclusion about possible circumstances of death.

According to Nicolas Jacquet, public prosecutor general at the Court of Appeal in Toulouse, the finds were made at a location that Cédric Jubillar had indicated to investigators. The site is in a rural, difficult-to-see area north of Albi and around 15 kilometres from Cagnac-les-Mines. Gendarmes are continuing to search the area.

The new measures followed an interrogation of Cédric Jubillar on 15 July in Toulouse. According to a statement from the public prosecutor’s office, he had told the judiciary that he was responsible for his wife’s death and offered to provide investigators with information about where the body had been left. The statements and the finds are now being forensically examined independently of each other.

For Delphine Aussaguel’s relatives, the discovery primarily means a new phase of waiting. For more than five and a half years, there has been no reliable trace of the woman, who was 33 at the time. The case attracted attention far beyond Tarn because the investigation was conducted for a long time without a body and many questions remained unanswered.

The examination at the gendarmerie’s institute is therefore more than a technical interim step. Forensic experts can assess, among other things, the nature, degree of ageing and possible DNA traces of the fragments. Whether sufficient usable material is available, however, can only be determined after laboratory analyses. The authorities have so far not given a date for results.

The criminal assessment also remains dependent on the experts’ findings. The appeal hearing scheduled for 21 September 2026 in Toulouse may be affected by new investigative measures. Until there is a scientifically confirmed identification, the following applies: the bone fragments found in Mailhoc constitute an important investigative lead, but not yet definitive proof of their origin.