Mother to Stand Trial for Murder of Missing Daughters in French Cold Case

The chamber of instruction confirmed on Wednesday the referral of Naïma B., 55, to the Assizes of Lot-et-Garonne. Accused of aggravated voluntary manslaughter, the woman of Moroccan origin will try to convince the jurors that she did not kill her two daughters, Inès and Nawal, aged 13 and 11 at the time of their disappearance. "It would have been unthinkable for her not to be referred to an assize court. Just because we haven’t found any bodies doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a murder," Me Sylvia Brusseau, lawyer for the father of the two girls, told France 3.

The bodies of Inès and Nawal have never been found since their disappearance in December 2016. The two sisters suffered from several disabilities and were following treatment in a specialized medicalized institute in the department of Lot-et-Garonne. They never returned there after returning to Nérac for the end-of-year holidays in December 2016. But it was not until the spring of 2017 that the department reported their disappearance. Interpol was informed of the case in March of the same year and a judicial investigation was opened in July.

The mother of the two girls is the main suspect. She was the sole caretaker of the two severely disabled children (they could neither speak, nor eat, nor move) and requiring permanent care. Their father had left the house after Nawal’s birth. As part of the investigation, the Moroccan woman and her relatives were placed under surveillance and a GPS tracker was placed on her car. But no evidence linking her to the disappearance, or locating the children, could be found.

Indicted in September 2017 for abandonment of minors, then for aggravated homicide, Naïma B. was placed in detention. During her hearing, the mother gave several versions. She claimed to have entrusted the children to her family in Morocco, or to have left them with strangers at a highway rest area in Tarifa, Spain. After four years in detention, she was released in November 2021, but remains under judicial supervision. The mother now claims that her daughters are safe, but refuses to give their location. She faces life imprisonment.