Missing French Teen Case Reclassified as Kidnapping, Authorities Seek Public’s Help

"New elements require us to move from a worrying disappearance to a kidnapping and sequestration case... ", said François Schneider, the public prosecutor of Alès, regarding the case of Sihem Belouahmia, who disappeared on Wednesday, January 25 in the evening. The Gard gendarmerie has launched an appeal for witnesses on its Facebook account to try to find the 18-year-old woman, recalls La Dépêche.

A man from the victim’s entourage, a suspect designated by the victim’s relatives, has already been heard by the investigators. On Sunday, a cynological brigade of the gendarmerie of the Bouches-du-Rhône went to the L’Habitarelle neighborhood in La Grand Combe, where Sihem was last seen and where her grandmother lives.