The horror is confirmed and increases a notch every day in Châteauvilain (Isère) where the charred bodies of a couple from the village were found a week ago, in the rubble of their deliberately burned house. Autopsies quickly revealed a violent death by gunshot. The couple’s youngest son, Valentin, who has not been found since the fire, was located and arrested on Saturday by the Montpellier gendarmes (Hérault) as he got off a bus.
From the start of his custody, in the premises of the research section of the Grenoble gendarmerie, the 15-year-old teenager confessed to investigators to having killed his parents. Information confirmed by Éric Vaillant, public prosecutor of Grenoble. Concerning the motive for this crazy gesture, Valentin explained that he wanted to rebuild his life, destroy everything and start again, according to the released Dauphiné. The weapon used would be his father’s rifle, a sports shooting enthusiast. According to a neighbor, Valentin Nurdin learned to use it himself by dragging bottles from the garden.
Many unanswered questions about the trigger
The scenario of the drama therefore begins to become clearer. Monday, November 27, Valentin allegedly shot and killed his parents while they were in their bedroom. He also allegedly attacked the family dog, a border collie found in a pool of blood. Then the teenager allegedly set the house on fire before fleeing in his father’s Citroën Picasso car towards Drôme where the vehicle was discovered damaged in Sainte-Uze. We do not know precisely how he continued his route towards Montpellier.
Today, many questions remain unanswered about the triggering factor of this murderous madness. Hearing his big brother, Titouan (17), at home the previous weekend and leaving the day before the tragedy for Lyon where he studies, will perhaps shed light on the atmosphere reigning in the family circle. Valentin’s psychiatric state is the other major unknown in this case. An expertise could determine the degree of responsibility of the teenager, whom many describe as intelligent. Valentin also suffered from Lyme disease from which he seemed to suffer greatly. His parents tried, in vain, to find remedies abroad.
“He was a kid like any other”
In the meantime, in Châteauvilain (800 inhabitants), we are trying to understand the incomprehensible. The Nurdin farmhouse is located away from the village, in Combe Noire, an isolated valley in the middle of the fields. The agricultural building had been renovated by Isabelle and Didier Nurdin, who arrived 18 years ago. Isabelle came from a family of Parisian cabinetmakers and had set up an armchair renovation workshop in this countryside. Didier was a former international level table tennis player (who was part of the French top 10 in the 90s) and today worked as an engineer at EDF in Lyon.
On the dirt road running alongside the Nurdin property, a few walkers look sadly at the smoke still escaping from the rubble. “It’s inconceivable. Our daughter went to primary school with Valentin. He was a child like any other. We never noticed anything unusual. He was later dropped out of college because he suffered from Lyme disease. That’s why he started correspondence courses. Afterwards, we lost contact with them. »
Police custody which ends this Monday
“Little Valentin, I didn’t know him,” confides Jocelyne, who has lived all her life in Châteauvilain and who, from her windows, has a view of the roof of the burned house. “However, I walk a lot in the countryside, especially near the Nurdin family home. I even have two armchairs that I had restored by his mother with whom I spoke at length. I even went to their house to see his workshop. She worked very well, was very friendly. But we haven’t seen Valentin, even though in the countryside, the children are outside all the time. I didn’t even recognize him in the photo on the wanted poster.
“It upsets us,” says Christelle, a mother from the village. My daughter was scared when she learned what Valentin had done. She thinks she’s living in a horror movie. We thought it was a robbery gone wrong. But there, a son who kills his own parents… It’s confusing. We wonder what was going through his mind. Was it Lyme disease that drove him crazy? »
Valentin Nurdin’s police custody ends this Monday. The Grenoble prosecutor should provide new details on the circumstances of this tragedy. The teenager risks up to 20 years of criminal imprisonment, a sentence taking into account his status as a minor.
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