DEPECHE INFO. Jubillar case: the old coal wash house of Blaye-les-Mines, new target of investigators – LaDepeche.fr

This is information that La Dépêche du Midi revealed to you yesterday: the investigators called in gendarmes specializing in speleology in connection with the disappearance of Delphine Jubillar. A unit based in Oloron-Sainte-Marie (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) was present at the beginning of the week in Cagnac-les-Mines.

These soldiers from the caving group of the national gendarmerie (GSGN), also called the underground investigation group (GEMS), which depends on the high mountain gendarmerie platoon (PGHM) based in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, were called upon to expand searches beyond the simple perimeter located near the home of the Jubillar couple.

The track of the old coal wash house

The explorations carried out on Cagnac-les-Mines having proved unsuccessful, the investigators wished to open up new avenues concerning places, a little more out of the way but still in a sector allowing to project quickly in the middle of the night and to conceal a body. or clues. One of these tracks leads to an area located about 7 km from the Jubillar’s home, which had not yet been explored: the old coal wash house of Blaye-les-Mines, on the site of “La Tronquié” .

It is an emblematic site of the mining basin. It is an industrial wasteland abandoned since its closure in the 1990s. A gigantic 7-storey building, made up of a concrete framework with metal beams that emerges from a forest between cavities, gaping holes, piles stones and rubbish. A difficult place to access – entry is obviously prohibited – dangerous, popular with Urbex fans and “chirps”. The coal wash house is located near the former mining operation of Sainte-Marie, one of the largest open-cast mines in Europe.

The day after the research carried out by the speleologists, we went there. It is by a small path, only known to the inhabitants of the sector, that one reaches this area. Broken windows, this fallen industrial flagship is open to the four winds, causing metallic squeaks that resonate in the blackened and ghostly structure.

Difficulty exploring these dismal places

The site still bears the scars of several fires. Holes dot the floor made up of thin concrete slabs and rusty, unsoldered, deformed iron slabs. Many pieces of metal loom out in the innumerable cavities of the building. Railings that do not hold, stairs without steps … Time has done its work. But wells are still visible. Below, at more than 30 meters, water stagnates which escapes from the retention basins.

One can easily imagine the difficulty investigators have in exploring these dismal places. Many places are difficult to reach without the equipment of climbers and speleologists. The cavities that dot the site are formidable. Hence the appeal to these specialists of the gendarmerie who will surely have other investigations to carry out in this sector.