France’s oldest detainee, Marie‑Thérèse Garcia, has gone on trial for the 1995 murder of her former sister‑in‑law Corinne Di Dio.
Di Dio went missing in June 1995 at the age of 37. Days later, a metal trunk bound with a chain was found floating in the Seine, west of Paris.
Inside the trunk lay a dismembered body – missing head and hands. The body was identified two years later in 1997 as Di Dio’s, but the missing parts were never recovered.
Garcia was suspected early on, but the case was closed twice for lack of evidence.
New DNA work identified two hairs found in the trunk as belonging either to the defendant or a relative from the same matrilineal line.
Garcia was placed in custody in 2023 to await trial. Her requests for early release on grounds of age and ill health have been denied.
Dubbed “Ma Dalton” by the French press, the 79‑year‑old maintains her innocence, saying the case against her is “built on sand.”
She told Le Parisien, “No one knows what happened. In law, if you don’t know, you can’t convict.”
Her lawyer Najwa El Haïté argued that the method of the crime – a dismembered, headless body – is typical of organised crime, not a lone 79‑year‑old without a criminal record.
Both Garcia and Di Dio had ties to the criminal underworld. In the 1980s, Di Dio was the lover of Antonio Marquez‑Gomez, a Spanish national linked to drugs trafficking.
The couple had a child, Romain, who is now 41 and was often looked after by Garcia. Garcia also had a relationship with Marquez‑Gomez’s brother, Francisco.
The wider circle also involved well‑known underworld figures Jean‑Jacques and Philippe Maurice; Philippe was the last person condemned to death in France, later granted clemency by President Mitterrand.
During the three‑week trial, the prosecution will argue that Garcia lured Di Dio to her home near Rambouillet, where in the sitting‑room she was stabbed and dismembered.
Prosecutors will claim the motive was a pact between Garcia and Marquez‑Gomez to take Romain away from his mother, and that Garcia had a grudge against Di Dio for an affair with Francisco.
Marquez‑Gomez is also accused of murder but is believed to be living in Colombia and is untraceable.
Romain told Le Parisien last week that after his mother’s disappearance, Garcia entrusted him to his father, who had moved to Madrid with a wife and children.
He recalled, “I was ten, suddenly in Spain with a father I barely knew and a family whose language I didn’t understand – that moment is a scar.”
Other evidence could include testimony from Garcia’s daughter Nancy, who in 2004 reported hearing her mother discuss murder on a phone call before Di Dio vanished.
Police were also alerted by a coincidence involving a young couple in 2022, one of whom was a great‑niece of Garcia.
After tapping Garcia’s telephone, authorities heard her say she would “cut them up and put the pieces in a suitcase” if she caught the culprits.
Described by the French press as a headstrong woman generous to friends but implacable to enemies, Garcia insists the case against her is circumstantial.
“The hairs they found were brown, but I always had black hair,” she told Le Parisien.
“If I’d wanted to eliminate every woman who slept with Francisco, there wouldn’t be many left. There is no proof against me. No motive. Everything is built on sand.”
