France’s Wrongfully Accused and the Criminal Backpacker

The crime story today is a case about a 16-year-old boy whose freedom was stolen from him because of his simple routines. I first heard about this case when I was telling a friend here in France about the Innocence Project in the United States. I asked him if there are any big cases in France where someone was wrongfully accused and he said unfortunately yes, the case of Patrick Dils. When he recounted the crime story to me, I was dumbfounded and knew I had to do more research. This is the story of 1986 murder of two young boys, the wrongful conviction of a 16-year-old boy, and who really committed the crime. Episode 20 covers the case of France’s Wrongfully Accused and the Criminal Backpacker this is their crime story. WARNING: This podcast discusses crimes against children, listener discretion is advised.

I have covered a number French Crimes on this podcast before since I am now living in France, I speak and read a bit of French and I understand the culture around Crime here but, just a bit of a refresher for you since it has been a couple episode since I covered the French legal system. France is run on the civil law system which means the laws are codified aka written down. Therefore, you break a law the courts do not look at case precedent but determine if you broke the codified law. France has an unfortunately long history of the wrongfully convicted starting all the way back to when Joan of Arc was posthumously exonerated in 1456 for the 1431 crime of heresy. According to a simple search on Wikipedia, there has been 5 notable wrongful convictions in France since the Joan of Arc, one of those being our crime story.

The Crime Story starts in the town of Montigny-lès-Metz which is in the Grand East Region of France in the Moselle department. For my non-French listeners, the town is located in the upper northeast corner of France just under Luxembourg. In 1986, the population was just around 22,000 people. Even though Montigny-lès-Metz is small, it is right next to the city of Metz which has a population of around 100,000 therefore I would concur Montigny- lès-Metz is part of a bigger metropolis area. On Sunday, September 28th, 1986, two 8-year-old boys Cyril Beining and Alexandre Beckrich who were neighbors left their homes around 5 pm to go ride their bikes around the town. They had a particular spot where they liked to ride about a kilometer behind their house where a few SNCF trains were held when not in use. When the boys had not returned home an hour later, their parents started to worry and went looking for them but to no avail when they couldn’t find them an hour later they contacted the authorities at 7:10pm. At 7:30 pm a police officer discovered the lifeless bodies of Cyril and Alexandre, both boys were on their backs at the foot of an embankment. Signs of homicide were apparent because their skulls were smashed in with rocks. Alexandre's pants are lowered to mid-thigh and Cyril's head is sunk ten centimeters into itself. Though the attack may have had a sexual motive to it, the boys were not subjected to sexual violence. This crime was obviously savage and seems to me to be a crime of opportunity, I don’t know if this was the boys set routine to ride their bikes every Sunday at 5pm but you have to remember this was a small town and I am sure it felt safe. Their parents could have never imagined when they said yes to allowing their sons to play that it would have been the last time, they ever saw them alive. The boys' funerals were held on October 2nd, 1986.

The investigation on who committed this heinous crime started immediately which was led by Commissioner Bernard Varlet. They interviewed several suspects including the boys neighbor 16-year-old apprentice chef Patrick Dils but the investigation did not really have a clear direction. Some neighbors said to the police Patrick Dils walks every day by this portion of railway that the boys were riding bikes to come back from school and that he did not really get on well with these kids. In France, the police can arrest you without the charge of a crime but only on suspicion of a crime but can only hold you for 48 hours. The police arrested Patrick Dils on October 1st, 1986 and questioned him based off the tips from the neighbors but was soon let go because he had a strong alibi. He was staying with his relatives in the family's country house in Dainville, they returned to Montigny-lès-Metz at 6:45 pm which was after the murders took place. With outcry from the public to make an arrest the investigators persisted. Around 500 people were interviewed and even two suspects confessed in police custody before retracting and no charges were brought to them.

On April 28th, 1987, the forensic / medical examiner declared the kids died at another time then was initially reported which was probably closer to 7pm. A couple told the police that lived 200 meters from the crime scene that they heard children's crying around 6:55 pm and they saw Patrick Dils near the scene. Keep in mind that Patrick Dils did walk home from school every day on path that the crime took place BUT the crime happened on a Sunday, therefore he wasn’t at school. Plus Patrick had an alibi that he was at his family’s country house BUT the family was home in Montigny-lès-Metz at 6:45pm and the time of death was now believed to be 6:55-7:00pm, it leaves a pretty tight window to find the boys and commit the crime in my opinion before the boys lifeless bodies were found at 7:30pm. Nevertheless, the police did not see Patrick has having a good alibi due to the new events and rearrested him at his work and Patrick was integrated. The police told Patrick he would get see his parents again if he told him he was killer. After more than 48 hours of straight integration at the police station admitted the murders and stated that he didn't know the reasons for the crimes. Patrick later recounted that he was scared, he was exhausted, he did not know he had the right to get a lawyer, he missed his parents... he said whatever the police told him to say to go back home.

On April 30, 1987, Patrick was formally charged with Voluntary homicide and sent to the prison of Metz-Queuleu. He gave a different version of events to his appointed attorney at the prison. The lawyer wanted to organize a crime scene reconstruction with the police and Patrick to prove that Patrick had no inside knowledge of the crime. At the reconstruction. The investigation judge asked Patrick what rocks he would have grabbed to kill the boys. Patrick immediately took rocks from where the police thought the murder weapon was found. This convinced the judge of Patrick's guilt. His lawyer did not have any card in hand to prove Patrick's innocence. The police and judge believed he was guilty despite the inconsistencies that remained around the timeline of the murder and the difficulty that a teenager may have had in causing the extreme physical violent acts perpetrated on the victims. When Patrick’s parents requested a permit to visit their son between the found guilt and the sentencing, the judge refused to allow visits. For sixteen months the only person Patrick saw from outside of prison was his lawyer.

On 27 January 1989, Patrick was sentenced to life in prison by the juvenile Cour d'assises of Moselle, however, the court did not take that Patrick was minor into his sentencing. The French law at the time would have allowed Patrick, being a minor to reduce the sentence to a maximum of 25 years however the fact Patrick was minor was simply ignored. The victims' parents said that they would have preferred the death penalty for Patrick Dils but the death penalty was abolished in France for minors in 1980 and then fully in 1981. Patrick’s lawyers in 1990 filed a review of "Cour de cassation". A cour de cassation is kind of equivalent to what an appeal is in the United States, the cour de cassation is not judging the evidence of the crime, but judging the investigative procedure. Patrick filed this on the ground for not knowing his right to a lawyer during questioning, this was ultimately denied. Patrick also asked for a Presidential pardon in 1994, but the French President at the time Francois Mitterand refused to. Mitterrand even wrote to the victim's family and assured them that he would never grant clemency to a murderer of children. It looked like Patrick Dils was in prison for life.

In 1997, an investigator in Rennes, Brittany, France named Jean- Francois Abgrall was working on a case for a suspected serial killer name Francis Heaulme. Francis Heaulme was born in 1959 in Metz, France which is the big city next to Montigny-les-Metz. Francis didn’t have the best childhood due to an alcoholic abusive father and low intelligence. He was nicknamed in his youth Felix le chat or Felix the cat because he liked to eat cat food. Francis had Klinefelter syndrome which means he had two or more X chromosomes and ad fertility issues and poorly functioning testicles. When Francis grew up he had a passion for biking which he would travel around France via walking, hitchhiking, cycling, and the train without a ticket. He would stay in shelters, psychiatric institutions, and detoxification centers earning money through odd jobs than spending it on alcohol. Francis committed his first murder against a 17-year-old girl 3 weeks after the death of his mother in 1984. In mid-1986 Francis went to live with his grandmother near to Montigny-les-Metz, while there he was working as a laborer for a company that was located just 400 meters from the crime scene of Cyril Beining and Alexandre Beckrich. Several times Francis involved accomplices in his crimes, his accomplices would perform a sexual act on the victim then Francis would kill them.

The investigator in Rennes, Brittany, France name Jean- Francois Abgrall took charge of the sting of crimes in Brittany that seemed to have a pattern. His investigation led him to Francis Heaulme, with whom he managed to come into contact. Despite the lack of support from his superiors, Jean-Francois understood the basic rule concerning the one he was charged with tracking down: "It is when you don't ask him anything that he says the most" While Jean-Francois investigates, Francis was committing more murders. Francis Heaulme was finally arrested on August 7th, 1992. Investigators tried to connect the dots of all of Francis Hulme’s crimes across France which were not an easy feat, the guy was believed to have committed murders from 1984-1992 in 35 departments in France. Moreover, negligence, shortcomings, and poor coordination of the various local investigation services made the investigation that much harder. It was finally Jean-Franois Abgrall who created a detailed timeline of murders according to the movements of Heaulme and centralized various investigations. He was able to speak to Francis who confessed to about 15 “pépins” which translates to glitches. Francis has also admitted to murdering medical personnel who do not believe him because he is known to be a storyteller. In several gendarmeries, he tells of "imaginary" attacks. Francis Heaulme describes his “victims, men, women or children are of all ages.” Their only common point, having been on the road to Heaulme when he “sees red”. Basically, he wasn’t a great guy, a true serial killer who liked to kill to simply kill and feel in control.

Francis Heaulme confessed to a murder in the South of France in which the victim was killed with rocks. Francis in 1997 confessed to killing 8-year-old neighbor’s Cyril Beining and Alexandre Beckrich in Montigny- lès-Metz. In fact, Francis was questioned in 1986 for the murders but was quickly ruled out for whatever reason! In 1998, Patrick Dil’s lawyer filed a new request for review after learning that the serial killer Francis Heaulme was working near the scene of the crime at the time of the facts, which constitutes a "new fact likely to raise doubts on the guilt of the condemned ”. In 1999, the commission agreed to submit the file to the criminal chamber of the Cour de Cassation which ordered a further investigation on June 28, 2000. On November 30, 2000, the Court for the review of criminal convictions annuls Patrick Dils' sentence to life imprisonment but refuses to release him pending a new judgment before the Marne Assize Court for minors, although he is now 31 years old.

On June 20, 2001, a new trial was ordered in the la cour d'assises des mineurs de Reims. Patrick told the court about the horrors of prison, the rapes he endured in prison, and the abuse and the bullying that is subjected to those accused of infanticide. On June 29, although the Advocate General requested an acquittal, he was found guilty and his life sentence became 25 years of criminal imprisonment. ARE YOU MAD? BECAUSE I KNOW I SURE AM!. An appeal was filed in a court for minors in Lyon, France- in this court Patrick explained he was subjected to psychological pressure during the interrogations preceding the confession extracted from a 16 year-old kid. His lawyer, as well as the police, produced evidence showing that Patrick Dils did not have time to commit this crime: the children died around 5 pm while Patrick Dils did not return home until around 6:45 pm On April 24, 2002, five years after Francis Heaulme’s confession Patrick’s innocence is recognized and he was released from prison after 15 years. This acquittal and release were understandably controversial, some still believe that Patrick was the murderer and that the lawyer took the opportunity to overthrow public opinion and obtain an acquittal for the benefit of the doubt. Some of the French concur that while the geographical proximity of Francis Heaulme during this period is disturbing, it appears to them only as an unfortunate coincidence. On March 31, 2014, 28 years after the facts, a new trial starts regarding the murders of Cyril Beining and Alexandre Beckrich where Francis Heaulme claimed innocence. On May 17th, 2017 the official trail for already convicted murderer Francis Heaulme started, he testified for 2 and a half hours on the second day of trial. Francis Heaulme was ultimately found guilty of the crime and was sentenced to two life terms.

In the years since the crime, The French government gave Patrick Dils one million euros, of which he got to keep 70 % in compensation for the wrongful conviction. He also got nice some money from media outlet TF1 on the day of his release. Patrick Dils said "I would have preferred not to touch a dime and not have been through all these hardships. It’s not a jackpot like you get in the Lottery. What I have experienced cannot be quantified. I can have blues, especially when I think of all those years that have been stolen from me. I was imprisoned between 16 and 32 years old; that part will never be returned to me. You cannot reconstruct a cigarette that has burned down.” Today Patrick Dils works as a seasonal restaurant worker, is married, and the father of two girls. Francis Heaulme remains in prison and has been convicted on 9 murders but has been suspected of killing many others he currently has a 100-year prison sentence. He has adapted to the prison regime and has not had a disciplinary incident in 25 years. He retired from his prison work of putting staples in boxes and receives a disability allowance of around € 200, which allows him to eat. “He has his friends, he watches TV, he eats… And he waits” his sister told the media in 2017.

Chantal Beining the mother of one of the boys murdered died in late 2019. A lawyer for the Beckrich family stated in 2017 after the conviction of Francis Heaulme “It is a case which closes definitively but which leaves us a bitter taste [the Beckrich family] was not convinced, during the trial of Versailles like that of Metz, of the guilt of Francis Heaulme. Now the Beckrich family want to stay in peace and no longer have to comment on the guilt or innocence of one or the other.”