France’s Oldest Detainee Faces Trial for 31‑Year‑Old Murder

Tue Jun 16 2026 18:00:10 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

79‑year‑old Marie‑Thérèse Garcia is on trial in Versailles for a case that began with a dismembered body found in the Seine in 1995.

At Versailles, the world’s oldest female detainee, Marie‑Thérèse Garcia, stands accused of kidnapping and killing her former sister‑in‑law, Corinne Di Dio, whose dismembered body was discovered in a metal trunk on the Seine in 1995. After years of court inaction, DNA breakthroughs tied hairs found in the trunk to the defendant, re‑igniting the case. Prosecutors argue that Garcia lured Di Dio to a house near Rambouillet, where she was stabbed and dismembered; they also claim retaliation over a family dispute and a motive to gain custody of a child. Garcia, nicknamed a “Grandmother of Lucky Luke” by the press, insists she is innocent, citing the lack of evidence and questioning the forensics. The trial will examine testimony from her daughter, cell phone surveillance, and the broader criminal network that linked them both to drug‑trade figures.

France’s oldest female detainee faces trial for 31‑year‑old murder

Marie‑Thérèse Garcia, 79, is on trial in the main courthouse of Versailles, a suburban city west of Paris, for the kidnapping and murder of her former sister‑in‑law, Corinne Di Dio, a case that began when a dismembered body was found in a metal trunk on the Seine in 1995.

Di Dio vanished in June 1995 at age 37. Forested days later, police discovered a chain‑bound trunk floating in the Seine, containing the remains of a woman whose head and hands had been removed. In 1997 the identity of the body was confirmed as Di Dio’s, though the missing parts remain lost.

For almost three decades the case was closed twice over a lack of evidence, but the arrival of new DNA technology offered a breakthrough: hair strands lodged inside the trunk matched either Garcia or a relative in her matrilineal descent.

In 2023 Garcia was committed to prison to await trial. Appeals for a conditional release on the grounds of age and health were refused.

Known in the press as the “Ma Dalton” after the mother of the Lucky Luke comic, Garcia maintains her innocence, saying the prosecution’s case is built on sand. She informs reporters that no one knows exactly what happened, therefore she cannot be convicted.

Her lawyer, Najwa El Haïté, warned that the pattern of the killing – a headless, handless body soaked in the underworld’s methods – did not match that of a woman without a criminal record. Although the defendant’s family history links her to the drug trade, so does the victim’s: Di Dio had once been the lover of Antonio Marquez‑Gomez, a Spanish drug‑dealer associate of police.

The family web also involved their son, Romain, now 41, who the family claims spent childhood under Garcia’s care. Romain testified that, after his mother’s disappearance, Garcia left him with his father, who resided in Madrid by then.

During the trial, prosecutors will build their case on the claim that Garcia lured Di Dio to an apartment northwest of Rambouillet, where a knife inflicted fatal wounds and the body was subsequently dismembered. They suggest a conspiracy between Garcia and Marquez‑Gomez to seize Romain from his mother, and an anger fueled by the victim’s affair with Francisco, Antonio’s brother.

The evidence includes testimony from Garcia’s daughter Nancy, who in 2004 told investigators that her mother had spoken about a murder shortly before Di Dio vanished, as well as phone intercepts revealing Garcia’s threat to “cut them up and put the pieces in a suitcase.”

The case is complicated by the history of contact within a network of well‑known underworld figures, including Jean‑Jacques and Philippe Maurice. Philippe, once condemned to death in France before being pardoned by President Mitterrand, remains a figure of notoriety.

As the trial has spanned three weeks, the court will hear all evidence, including the forensic link from hair, cell‑phone data, witness statements and the broader criminal matrix that conjoined the defendant and victim.