Overview
- Prosecutor David Touvet announced Tuesday, June 23, that the suspect has confessed to killing his wife, Hakima Boukerouis, and has admitted he also killed one of his sons.
- Boukerouis was identified in April 2025 after Interpol’s Identify Me campaign and forensic work linked the long-unidentified body to her through dental and DNA evidence.
- Her body was found on January 7, 2005 in a recycled plastic rain barrel near Saint-Quirin in Moselle; it bore stab wounds and had been wrapped in black bags and cord.
- The suspect, named in reports as Saïd Lalaouna, was arrested in June 2025 after DNA searches, placed in provisional detention and later released for medical reasons, then re-interrogated in early June 2026 before his confession.
- Investigators have formally placed a niece under investigation and judicial control for alleged complicity, prosecutors have not yet said whether the suspect has been re-detained, and the case now proceeds toward prosecution, underscoring the role of cross-border forensic cooperation in solving cold cases.