The national “cold cases” unit released a video this Tuesday, October 14, to gather new testimonies about the murder of Ariane Guillot. This Parisian teacher was killed with a knife in 2001, on the Castle Hill in Nice. Investigators from the Nice judicial police hope that the memory of residents and visitors will bring forth forgotten details.
On April 18, 2001, in the late afternoon, Ariane Guillot was walking with her three-year-old nephew on Castle Hill in Nice. She was spending a few days on vacation on the French Riviera, at her brother’s place, a researcher from Nice. Just a few meters from the pedestrians, the young woman was stabbed in broad daylight. The murderer was never found.
“We have some auditory testimonies,” recalls Commander Crystèle Pajani from the Nice criminal brigade in a video broadcasted by the Ministry of the Interior. This familiar setting for the people of Nice made the crime all the more striking. A municipal officer, alerted by a scream, discovered the victim lying on her back, bloodied. The little boy she was looking after had seen everything.
Since that day, the memory of the tragedy remains in the local consciousness. “The Ariane Guillot case is unusual because, on a national level, it’s not known, but on a local level in Nice, it was significant,” explains Franck Dannerolle, divisional commissioner and chief of the Central Office for the Suppression of Violence against Persons (OCRVP).
The investigation, initially conducted by the Nice judicial police, did not lead to a resolution. Several suspects were arrested and then cleared. The murder weapon was never found, and DNA analyses that were difficult to exploit at the time limited the leads. Two dismissals were pronounced, in 2006 and 2009.
But in 2023, the unsolved crimes unit of the Nanterre judicial court — the “cold case unit” — reopened the case. This unit, created to revisit old investigations, is working with the Nice judicial police to review procedural elements and restart analyses.
A call for witnesses to awaken the memory of Nice residents
This Tuesday, October 14, a four-minute video was released on the Ministry of the Interior’s site as part of the “In Search of Clues” program. It features images of the park, a photo of Ariane Guillot and her nephew wearing a yellow raincoat, as well as a model of the knife used.
The prosecutor of Nanterre, Yves Badorc, hopes that this visual format “will stimulate the memory of those who were in Nice at that time. The idea is to prompt testimony from people who can retrospectively reconsider a scene or an element that seemed insignificant at the time but is crucial.” The cold case unit encourages anyone who was on Castle Hill that day to come forward, even anonymously.
Investigators are also relying on the local residents. “With a national system, we can find people who were living in Nice at the time or who were on vacation in the region,” emphasizes Franck Dannerolle. Posters will soon be deployed around the city, in public places and transportation systems.
For the commissioner, this new call is crucial: “the important thing is to keep these cases alive and to give them a chance to be solved.” The testimonies received will be handled jointly by the Nice judicial police and the OCRVP, co-assigned to the case.
The reopening of the investigation has also led to new expert analyses: updated DNA analyses, examination of blood stains found near the body, morphological reconstruction of the wound, and a psycho-criminological study of the perpetrator’s profile. In 2024, a man was taken into custody before being released due to insufficient evidence.
In Nice, the emotion remains unchanged
For the family of Ariane Guillot, this call for witnesses rekindles an old hope. Her brother Tristan, now a researcher at CNRS in Nice, remembers the day everything changed: “to learn something so terrible… it’s like the world collapses. Something indelible.”
Twenty-four years later, he remains hopeful: “we can still find her murderer. Any clue can lead to a lead.”
The Castle Hill, an emblematic site of Nice, remains a popular spot for locals and tourists. Every day, residents come to walk, admire the view, or play with their children. Many remember the tragedy that occurred just a few meters from the well-trodden paths.
“We have this surprise about people’s memories… Sometimes they remember a date because that day there was another element…” notes the commissioner.
The call for witnesses released this week aims to activate this collective memory, relying on the remembrances of a city marked by an unsolved crime.
Individuals who may have information can contact the cold case unit or the Nice judicial police at the following address: dnpj-ocrvp-eqi@interieur.gouv.fr to provide their testimony. Investigators hope that somewhere, a witness from the past will find the words today to advance the truth.
