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David
HOTYAT
The Flactif Case
Classification: Mass murderer
Characteristics: Jealous of Mr Flactif's success - Burned the
bodies on a massive pyre in a local forest
Number of victims: 5
Date of murder:
April 11,
2003
Date
of arrest:September 16,
2003
Date of birth: 1973
Victims profile: Xavier
Flactif, 41, his partner Graziella
Ortolano, 36, and their children Gregory, 7, Laetitia, 10 and Sarah, 11
Method of murder:
Shooting
Location:
Grand Bornand, Haute Savoie, France
Status:
Sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 22 years
on June 30, 2006
The Flactif Case is
unique in the history of crime, not only as a sordid news-in-brief event
but also as an example of a five months high media coverage event. The
victims are thought to be guilty to the eye of the public.
April, 11, 2003, a whole family
disappeared : Xavier Flactif, his partner, Graziella and their three
children. Their cottage located in The Grand Bornand is found empty,
everything looked to be in order but ready-made meals are found and the
fridge is full of food.
Xavier Flactif is a property developer who
succeeded by the sweat of his brow. Beautiful houses built, luxury cars,
dream holidays made his success complete and true but it definitely
bothered people. Rumours have it that he didn’t pay his bills and made
poorly house building works. During several months, the investigators
appeared to favour the theory that they were on the run and the media
were in full agreement to this hypothesis.
The Flactif’s neighbours, David Hotyat
and his partner Alexandra Lefebvre were particularly virulent when
interviewed by the TV channels. But in this cottage where they lived,
some clues revealed blood traces, fragments of baby tooth. What followed
is known : David Hotyat, his partner, and two of their friend were
arrested.
The hypothesis of the murder came to light. What is the motive
for the crime ? A raging jealousy is hiding behind it. Both natives of
modest families from the north of France, Xavier Flactif and David
Hotyat without knowing each other had roughly started their career with
the same qualifications. Very soon, their respective careers took
different ways : One (X.F) powered by sound ambition and energy had to
sort it out to achieve his dream whereas the other (D.H) was gathering
professional failures, holding grudges and bitterness deep down. Their
ways were bound to cross in High Savoy where the Flactif’s success would
reveal David Hotyat’s failures.
Christine-Kelly.fr
Family of Five Killed
for a Few Days' Pay
The Guardian
September 18, 2003
One of France's most sensational recent
murder cases seemed to have been solved yesterday when a next-door
neighbour confessed to having killed a wealthy property developer, his
partner and their three young children, apparently for the sake of a few
hundred pounds.
"He's admitted that he did it, and we
have the DNA samples to prove it," an official at the public
prosecutor's office in Annecy said. "The motive for such a massacre
seems scarcely believable, but he is certainly the chief suspect."
The exuberant Flactif family vanished
without trace from their chalet in the isolated hamlet of Le Grand
Bornand, near the Alpine ski resort of La Clusaz, on April 11, leaving
all the lights blazing, a fire burning in the grate, the table laid and
their dinner in the oven.
Their disappearance enthralled France,
and local people speculated that Xavier Flactif, 41, an aggressive,
successful but allegedly unscrupulous real estate magnate who had made
many enemies since his arrival in the region in 1999, had simply fled
with his family after a shady deal had gone wrong.
The family's red Toyota Landcruiser was
finally found abandoned just over a month later, near Geneva airport.
A mass of legal documents and plans and
two laptop computers had disappeared from the chalet. For weeks the
police combed Flactif's 71 bank accounts for a clue in his numerous
business dealings, which mainly involved buying land cheap and selling
the chalets he built on it dear.
"Everyone thought he had just run off,"
a villager told Le Parisien yesterday. "He didn't have many friends here,
and that's an understatement. He ripped a few people off and he was
flashy with his money.
"But I don't think anyone seriously
thought he might have been killed, and certainly not his kids. They were
guilty of nothing."
Gradually the police assembled evidence
that could only point to murder.
The chalet had been meticulously cleaned
but several small brown flecks remained, particularly between the
floorboards.
The children's bedding had gone, and a
square of staircase carpet had been neatly cut out.
Finally traces of blood were found in
the Landcruiser, and fragments of tooth and a spent 6.35mm cartridge
came to light in the chalet.
DNA analysis of the dried blood revealed
traces of the five members of the family, Xavier, his partner Graziella
Ortolano, 36, and their children Gregory, seven, Laetitia, 10 and Sarah,
11, and an unknown sixth person.
As police divers, potholers and sniffer
dogs continued searching for the missing bodies throughout the summer,
the police began taking DNA samples, first from other members of the
Flactif family, then from business associates, clients and workmen, and
finally from neighbours.
After more than 130 tests the laboratory
analysing the samples said last week that one of them matched what
became known in the French press as "the famous sixth trace".
Four people were arrested on Tuesday in
an operation involving 80 gendarmes.
Confronted with the evidence, David
Hotyat, 31, a mechanic who had rented the next-door chalet from Flactif
since last year, finally confessed to the killings.
Mr Hotyat, who has no crim inal record
and was described by his family yesterday as quiet and hard-working, led
the police to a remote spot in the forest a few miles away, where the
remains of five badly burned bodies - which have yet to be formally
identified - were recovered.
Mr Hotyat's wife Alexandra was also
remanded in custody, together with a man who worked in the same garage
in nearby Annecy-le-Vieux as Mr Hotyat, and his wife.
The three are suspected of having
helping in cleaning up after the murders and disposing of the bodies, a
gendarmerie spokesman said, adding that they might eventually be charged
as accomplices.
"The suspect said he had a violent
altercation with Flactif, with whom he was apparently on very bad terms,
that evening over payment for a couple of odd jobs that he had done for
him and a few hours of cleaning that his wife did in the chalet," the
spokesman said. "The sum involved is derisory, a few hundred euros."
But he added that there was still a
possibility that the investigators might uncover further links between
the suspect and his principal victim, both of whom came originally from
the north of France.
According to a neighbour, Mr Hotyat led
an expensive lifestyle which seemed beyond his means as a garage
mechanic.
"In a way I hope there's more to it,"
the spokesman said. "Five lives for a row between neighbours is
difficult to stomach."
Mechanic 'slaughtered
family'
Kim Willsher - The Guardian
Tuesday 13 June 2006
A 33-year-old mechanic went on trial yesterday
accused of killing a couple and their three children in one of
France's most mysterious murder cases. David Hotyat allegedly
slaughtered the family at their Alpine chalet then burned their
bodies on a massive pyre in a local forest.
Xavier Flactif, 41, his partner Graciella Ortolano,
36, and their children Gregory, seven, Laetitia, 10, and Sarah, 11,
disappeared from their home in La Grand Bornand, an isolated hamlet near
the ski resort of La Clusaz on April 11 2003. The curtains had been left
drawn, the lights on, and the table laid for dinner.
When the family's Toyota Landcruiser was found
abandoned near Geneva airport a month later, locals assumed that Mr
Flactif, a property developer, had fled after a shady deal went wrong.
Yesterday the court in Annecy heard that he had been banned from running
a business for 10 years in 1998 and had debts of €2.7m (£1.7m) when he
disappeared.
A murder inquiry was launched when bloodstains and
minuscule fragments of the children's teeth were found in the chalet.
DNA analysis showed the blood came from five members of the family and a
sixth person, said to be Mr Hotyat.
Six months after the family disappeared, Mr Hotyat,
who had rented the next-door chalet from Mr Flactif, was arrested and
confessed. He later retracted the confession. His partner, Alexandra
Lefèvre, his brother Mickaël and another couple were in court accused of
involvement in the murders or subsequent cover-up.
Mr Hotyat and Ms Lefèvre were allegedly jealous of Mr
Flactif's success and filled with hatred for the property developer
after he allegedly promised they could rent one of his villas then
reneged on the deal.
Murder in Le Grand Bornand
Thursday, 18 September, 2003
A bit outside the usual scope for PisteHors but we
have to report that one of the events that has mystified the Haute
Savoie ski resort of Le Grand Bornand has been tragically resolved. On
the 11th of April 2003 the five members of the Flactif family, residents
of Le Grand Bornand, went missing from their chalet. The family 4x4 was
seen parked on a nearby track and was then later found at Geneva airport.
Xavier Flactif was an estate agent specialised in selling ski chalets to
rich English and Dutch investors. Locals assumed that one of his
business deals had turned sour and the family had skipped the country.
The police were not convinced. Using recent advances
in laser imagery they were able to identify the trajectory of minute
traces of blood found in the main room of the chalet. The blood samples
belonged to all five members of the Flactif family plus another, then
unknown person. The images indicated foul-play. Like an Agatha
Christie novel there were no shortages of suspects. Nine year old
Laetitia Flactif was an accomplished skier who had won local
competitions and had aroused the jealousy of the locals. With the cost
of real estate sky rocketing her father was even less liked. One
neighbour had sprayed his luxury Mercedes with petrol and another had
said he could happily strangle him.
Early on the 16th of September the police made their
move. They stopped the car of a mechanic, a neighbour of Flactif. In a
lightening operation the mechanic was wrestled to the ground and cuffed.
Simultaneously the house was searched and his wife was arrested as an
accessory, their two year old son taken into care. In the end the
murderer, like Flactif, originated from the North of France and had
seemed to be one of Xavier Flactif’s few friends in the area. After
killing Flactif he had forged a lease for one of the estate agent’s
chalets.
Since the shocking news broke it has been local
people and school friends of the Flactif children who have brought cards
and flowers to their closed chalet.
*****
Monday, 22 November, 2004
The wheels of justice grind slowly in France, very
slowly. David Hotyat, who has been accused of murdering the Flactif
family, is coming to trial on the 13th of December, 2004 at Annecy.
However this trial concerns only the matter of Hotyat burning down one
of M. Flactif’s chalets. Hotyat and his Stéphane Haremza are expected to
plead guilty.
The murder trial is expected to be brought to court
in 2006, some 3 years after the events.
*****
Wednesday, 03 May, 2006
David Hotyat has won a injunction against the Rap
group Sinik who include the line “David Hotyat - child killer” in one of
their recent songs. The French High Court has upheld Hotyat’s
presumption of innoncence. The trial is due to start on the 12th of June
and last 3 weeks. Hotyat has already admitted killing the Flactif family
although it is not clear how he will plead at trial.
*****
Monday, 03 July, 2006
As expected David Hotyat was found guilty of
murdering the five members of the Flactif family on the 30th of June. He
was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 22 years. Alexandra Lefèvre,
Hotyat’s ex-girlfriend was sentenced to 10 years for her part in the
murder. Lefèvre had denied any connection with the crimes but an
interview with French television made shortly after the Flactifs
disappeared showed her hatred for the family. The jury were not
convinced by her story. Since the murder she has had time to find a new
boyfriend and start a family possibly hoping this would result in a more
lenient sentence. Hotyat’s accomplices Stéphane and Isabelle Haremza and
his brother Mickaël Hotyat all received various jail terms.
The Flactif family disappeared on the 11th of April
2003. Xavier Flactif, an estate agent, had debts said to total 3 million
euros and it was widely believed in the village that the family had fled
the country after their car was found at Geneva airport. The police were
not convinced, although many people in the area bore a grudge against M.
Flactif their investigations centered on a friend David Hotyat and his
entourage.
