Bones Found in Jubillar Case: Investigators Await DNA Results

Mailhoc – 18 July 2026: In a remote field in the north of the Tarn department, a case that has gripped France for years has suddenly become very tangible again. According to judicial authorities, gendarmes found bones on 16 July at a location Cedric Jubillar had shown investigators. However, it has still not been confirmed whether the remains belong to Delphine Aussaguel.

The site is located within the municipality of Mailhoc, near Cagnac-les-Mines, where Delphine Aussaguel and Cedric Jubillar lived. The on-site investigation was concluded on Friday, 17 July. The search focused on possible human remains and other evidence. Following the convicted man’s new statements, the area was searched with a substantial police presence.

Nicolas Jacquet, prosecutor general at the Toulouse Court of Appeal, said that during a hearing on 15 July, Jubillar admitted responsibility for the death of Delphine Aussaguel and offered to lead investigators to the location where the body had been disposed of. The following day, he was brought from prison to the search operation in the Tarn. His statements are now being forensically verified.

The recovered evidence was taken to the French Gendarmerie’s Research Institute, IRCGN, in Pontoise. DNA and forensic examinations there are intended first to establish the identity. The investigation will also examine whether, after more than five and a half years, it is still possible to draw conclusions about the cause of death. Authorities have not yet released any findings.

Delphine Aussaguel, a nurse and mother of two, disappeared during the night of 15 to 16 December 2020. Her body had not been found during the investigation or the first trial. On 17 October 2025, Cedric Jubillar was sentenced by the Tarn Assize Court to 30 years in prison for murder. He has appealed the verdict.

According to the current schedule, the appeal trial is set to take place in Toulouse from 21 September to 16 October 2026. The new findings may be significant for the proceedings, but they do not replace either the forensic assessment or a renewed judicial evaluation. No final ruling has yet been issued because the appeal proceedings are ongoing.

For Delphine Aussaguel’s relatives, the discovery above all offers the prospect of certainty after long years of waiting. At the same time, the current state of the investigation calls for restraint: the bones have not yet been identified. Only the laboratory results will be able to answer whether the search near Mailhoc has actually produced the decisive evidence in this case.