Father disappeared Lina gives an interview for the first time since her disappearance: “As time passes, hope diminishes” | Abroad
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The father of 15-year-old Lina, the girl who disappeared in French Alsace in September, spoke openly to the media for the first time this week. He gave an interview to the daily newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace and said he did so “to quell gossip”.
IHB
23-04-24, 20:01
Latest update: 23-04-24, 20:08
Source: Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace, Le Parisien
49-year-old truck driver Olivier Delsarte says he still has hope for a good outcome. “Not knowing anything is of course frustrating. But on the other hand, it leaves the door open for some hope. As time passes, that hope diminishes,” the truck driver summarizes. “Deep down I suspect that…” he adds, without finishing his sentence.
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Lina has been missing since September 23, 2023. The 15-year-old girl was last seen walking to Saint-Blaise-la-Roche station, where she was supposed to catch a train to her boyfriend in Strasbourg. When she didn’t show up, the boy notified the girl’s mother. Since then, every trace of Lina has been missing. According to investigators, the teenager never boarded the train.
Father last saw his daughter in the summer of 2022
The truck driver says he hasn’t worked since his daughter disappeared. He has been separated from Lina’s mother for decades, has lived in Isère for almost a year and saw his daughter according to the rule “once every two weeks, a weekend”, but the last time they spoke was in July 2022.
Since Lina’s disappearance, Olivier Delsarte, unlike her mother, has never spoken out publicly. “Because that’s not my nature,” he explains. “Now I am making a superhuman effort,” he says, adding that it is mainly to “suppress all gossip.”
There’s a lot of gossip going around that I wasn’t there for my daughter. That’s not true at all. I was always there when she called me, I was always there for her
Olivier Delsarte, father of Lina
Delsarte was questioned twice in the investigation into his daughter’s disappearance. Once just after the disappearance and once on March 1. “I was worried because I wasn’t sure what they wanted to know or what they wanted to tell me, but my two interrogations went very well,” he says. The father also praises the work of the researchers: “They give everything with the resources they have. Despite the passage of time, they do not give up.”
Lots of question marks
Seven months after the disappearance, the investigation is still faltering and many questions remain surrounding the disappearance of the teenager, who disappeared in five minutes on a country road that would take her on foot to the station of Saint-Blaise-la-Roche. The three people arrested by police in Strasbourg in late March were eventually released because there was “no incriminating evidence”, according to a source close to the investigation.
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