Rabat – The regional service of the judicial police of Dakhla continues the investigation ordered by the prosecutor’s office of the Court of Appeal of Laayoune to elucidate the ins and outs of the alleged disappearance of a trader in Dakhla on February 7 and to determine a possible link of this disappearance with the discovery, in suspicious conditions near the beach of the city, of the corpse of another merchant, who is one of his acquaintances.
A statement by the national police (DGSN) said Wednesday that this judicial investigation is conducted in collaboration with the National Brigade of Judicial Police (BNPJ) and the services of the Directorate General of Territorial Surveillance (DGST), with the technical support of the Criminal Intelligence Brigade in Laayoune and the National Laboratory of Forensic Science in Casablanca.
Investigations have determined the location of the alleged crime where these criminal acts were perpetrated, noted the statement, adding that it is a warehouse used by the trader whose body was discovered after being washed out to sea.
Inside this warehouse, several DNA samples and bloodstains of the victim declared missing in suspicious conditions were found, which were subject to attempts to hide and destroy with detergents.
The DGNS noted that the search operations have discovered traces of a fire in a vacant lot not far from the scene of the crime, remains of charred bones and human teeth, adding that biological tests conducted by the National Laboratory of Forensic Science have revealed that they match the DNA samples of the victim, subject of the notice of disappearance, and have the genetic similarity with the DNA fingerprint taken from the mother of the victim.
The technical and scientific expertise carried out confirmed that the fire was started with gasoline, noted the statement, stressing that this scientific result is consistent with the findings of the investigation, surveillance camera recordings that confirmed that the shopkeeper whose body was discovered near the beach had bought 15 liters of gasoline in a container and new clothes after his clothes were stained with blood.
The surveillance cameras that were examined documented his presence with the deceased in the warehouse, the presumed scene of the crime, before leaving the premises alone, according to the same source.
The DGSN reported that at this stage of the investigation, officers, agents of the judicial police and crime scene technicians continue the necessary searches and investigations under the supervision of the competent prosecutor, in order to collect all testimony and consolidate evidence that may clarify the real reasons for these criminal acts, especially since the victim is linked by financial and commercial transactions with the merchant whose body was washed into the sea.
The same source pointed out that all the data of the investigation available so far suggest that the latter is the main suspect in this culpable homicide.
The experts of the scientific and technical police continue, at the level of the Institute of forensic sciences of the DGSN, to analyze all the samples of DNA taken from the scene of the crime, objects, cars and clothes, in order to determine the genetic fingerprint of any person in connection with this case.
On February 7, the services of the national police in Dakhla had received a notice of disappearance of the victim, a 48-year-old merchant, recalled the statement, adding that a search notice was issued. It was also proceeded to the hearing of family members and acquaintances including a merchant with whom he had commercial transactions and whose body was found on February 9 near a rocky area on the beach of the city after being washed up by the sea.
Source: Agency Morocaine De Presse