Murder of Mireille Knoll: the accused before the assizes – archyde

Friday March 23, 2018, the fire broke out on the second floor of 30, avenue Philippe-Auguste, in the 11^e district of Paris. Alerted shortly after 6 p.m., the firefighters quickly circumscribed it, and the police arrived on the scene immediately. There, in the damaged apartment, they discovered the partially charred body of Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old tenant. She was lying on her bed in a strange position: lying on her back, arms curled up, feet falling to the floor.

Suffering from Parkinson’s disease, widowed Mireille Knoll only moved around with the support of a walker. Every day – morning, afternoon and evening – she received home help, as well as visits from her children and her daughter-in-law. Very quickly, investigators found that the octogenarian had not died from the fire. The octogenarian, survivor of the Vel ‘d’Hiv roundup in July 1942, was killed by eleven stab wounds to the thorax, stomach, back and neck.

Accused of being the perpetrators of this murder, Yacine Mihoub, 32, and Alex Carrimbacus, 25, appear from Tuesday, October 26 and until Wednesday, November 10, before the Assize Court of Paris. The two men will have to answer for intentional homicide “With these circumstances that the facts were committed on a person whom they knew perfectly vulnerable because of his physical or mental state and, moreover, because of the membership of the victim to the Jewish religion”. To this criminal qualification for which they incur life imprisonment are added the charges of “aggravated theft” and “destruction of the property of others by a means dangerous for people”.

Child abuse

Yacine Mihoub was arrested the day after the crime – on March 24 – while he was going to his mother’s house, on the seventh floor of the building at 30, avenue Philippe-Auguste. During his police custody, he was quick to admit that he had spent part of the afternoon of the 23 at Mr.^me Knoll, without however admitting the crime.

He had known her for many years. When he was a child, he often went down to see her. M^me Knoll liked this kid who, on occasion, did him little favors. Yacine Mihoub, now a young adult with a sometimes lively temperament, alcoholic, and facing recurring legal troubles, had spaced his visits. In February 2017, it was at Mireille Knoll’s home, while he was drunk, that he attacked the daughter of the latter’s home help, a 12-year-old girl. This had earned him a sentence of two years in prison, ten months of which was firm.

You have 65.69% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.