79‑Year‑Old French Woman Faces Murder Trial Over 1995 Cold Case

Wed Jun 17 2026 09:27:41 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

France’s oldest detainee, Marie‑Thérèse Garcia, is on trial for the 1995 murder of her sister‑in‑law. DNA evidence and decades‑old clues bring a chilling case to a new courtroom.

Marie‑Thérèse Garcia, 79, is on trial for the murder of her former sister‑in‑law, Corinne Di Dio, which began in 1995 when a trunk filled with a dismembered body was found in the Seine. The case, closed twice for lack of evidence, has been reopened by new DNA technology linking hairs from the trunk to Garcia. The prosecution argues that Garcia lured Di Dio to her home, where she was killed, stabbed, and dismembered. Garcia maintains her innocence, citing lack of motive and the gruesome nature of the crime as inconsistent with her past. The trial will feature testimony from Garcia’s daughter and other witnesses, and will probe deep criminal networks linked to the victim and alleged associates.

79‑Year‑Old French Woman Faces Murder Trial Over 1995 Cold Case

Marie‑Thérèse Garcia, aged 79 and the oldest female detainee in France, is now on trial for the 1995 kidnapping and murder of her former sister‑in‑law, Corinne Di Dio. The case revolves around a dismembered body discovered in a metal trunk floating in the Seine River west of Paris three decades ago.

Di Dio vanished in June 1995 at the age of 37. Shortly afterward, a chain‑bound trunk was found in the river near Notre‑Dame. The trunk contained a woman’s corpse, missing head and hands, which was only identified as Di Dio in 1997. The missing body parts were never recovered.

Garcia was initially a suspect but the case closed twice for lack of evidence. A breakthrough came with DNA analysis; hairs found in the trunk matched either Garcia or a matri‑lineal relative. In 2023, she was jailed awaiting trial, despite repeated petitions for conditional release citing her age and health.

The prosecution’s narrative is that Garcia lured Di Dio to her home near Rambouillet, where she was stabbed, dismembered, and the body placed in the trunk. They propose a motive tied to a dispute over the child, Romain, and her alleged affair with Francisco. This ties Garcia to a wider criminal network including Antonio Marquez‑Gomez and the brothers Jean‑Jacques and Philippe Maurice.

Garcia, dubbed “Ma Dalton” by the press, insists she is innocent, describing the case as built on “sand.” Her lawyer, Najwa El Haïté, argues that the brutality is inconsistent with a woman with no prior criminal record.

Key evidence will include testimony from Garcia’s daughter, Nancy, who reported hearing her mother discuss a murder before Di Dio’s disappearance, and from Romain, who recounts being taken to Spain by his father shortly after. Police also flagged a 2022 disappearance of a young couple that included García’s great‑niece, with a phone tap revealing statements that she “would cut them up and put the pieces in a suitcase.”

The trial will run for three weeks at the main courthouse in Versailles, with prosecutors aiming to secure a conviction based on the DNA, circumstantial testimony, and asserted ties to organised crime.