Remember Philippine Le Noir de Carlan. She was 19 years old, bright, warm, and studying economics and financial engineering at Paris Dauphine University.
After lunch on campus, she was supposed to go home for the weekend. Her parents were waiting for her.
She never arrived.
Her calls went unanswered. That was completely unlike her, so her family contacted the police.
The next morning, her friends joined the search. Then came the horrifying discovery, a body partially buried in the Bois de Boulogne, with one arm visible above the ground.
It was Philippine.
The autopsy was unequivocal. She had been beaten, raped, and strangled.
CCTV footage showed a man with a ponytail, around 1.80 meters tall, using her bank card at an ATM. He was identified as Taha O., a Moroccan national who had previously been convicted in 2019 of raping another young French woman.
He was already under a deportation order and should not have been in France.
He was arrested at Geneva railway station while attempting to leave the country. After being extradited to France, he was charged with rape and murder as a repeat offender, as well as theft.
He has remained in pre-trial detention ever since and faces life imprisonment if convicted.
As of September 2026, the case is still under investigation. Taha O. has admitted killing Philippine but claims he cannot remember how it happened.
A judicial reconstruction of the crime took place in June 2026.
His trial before the assize court is expected in the second half of 2027.
He remains in custody and, if convicted, still faces life imprisonment.
Remember Philippine. Never forget.