- Two children aged 4 months and 1 year deprived of their mother
- The victim's aunt: “We welcomed Jonathan into our family”
Nancy Merle, 28 years old, will not see her two children grow up, her one-year-old daughter and her four-month-old son. This mother, who lived only for her children, hid great suffering behind her smiles. Married to Alexandre Jonathan Merle, 33 years old, the young woman lived a real ordeal with him.
The blows and insults had become her daily life. The father of her two children was also having extramarital affairs. The violent arguments finally got the better of her. On June 2, Alexandre Jonathan Merle alerted Nancy's father that she had been taken ill. When her relatives arrived, they discovered her lying inert on a mattress. Her body was already cold.
The young woman's husband, also called Nathan, then allegedly insisted that no autopsy be performed. However, the post-mortem examination was to indicate that she succumbed to heart failure, in other words, that she died of natural causes.
However, this matter has undergone significant development. The victim's father filed a complaint shortly after her death. The Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of Flacq, after a careful investigation, apprehended Alexandre Jonathan Merle on Monday June 24. Pressed with questions, he ended up admitting to investigators that he had suffocated his wife with a pillow. On Tuesday, June 27, he was charged with killing the mother of his children in cold blood.
According to Nancy's relatives, in front of them, Alexandre Jonathan Merle behaved like an exemplary son-in-law, while with Nancy, he was a real tyrant. Nancy had thought she would find happiness with him. “Nancy did not know her biological mother. Her parents separated when she was a child. She lived in the family home in Argy with her grandparents. She was a sweet, calm girl and she was a bon vivant,” says Marie Angel, the victim's paternal aunt. Later, her father Gérard Catapermal started a new life with Scheba. “Scheba raised her. Nancy considered her as her own mother,” adds Marie Angel.
At the age of 20, the young woman met Alexandre Jonathan Merle. “She had never met anyone before. She was a pure girl and she exuded the joy of living. It was on Facebook that she met Jonathan,” says Marie Angel. Over the course of their exchanges, close ties developed between them and Nancy ended up succumbing to the charm of this Baie-du-Tombeau resident.
Things moved quickly. Sure of her feelings for this young man who at first glance seemed quite ordinary, Nancy decided to get together with him. “The same year they met, shortly after, they got married in a civil ceremony, then in a religious ceremony,” continues Marie Angel.
The couple settled upstairs in the family home. “Her father and stepmother lived on the ground floor and Nancy lived upstairs. The family welcomed Nathan,” she said. Subsequently, underlines Marie Angel, Nancy's father and stepmother settled elsewhere: “They left them the house. »
Some time after their wedding, Nancy, who was on cloud nine, was brought back to the harsh reality. “Jonathan was a friendly, smiling young man when he was with us,” says the victim's paternal aunt. “But that was only one facet of his personality, because for Nancy, who lived with him every day, he was a real tormentor.”
Alexandre Jonathan Merle had extramarital affairs. “When Nancy told him about it, he would hit her, mistreat her.” Marie Angel still remembers her niece's confidences: “He told me Nathan would beat him, he would kill him, he would kill me.”
It was only after a few years that the couple had their first child, a daughter. Nancy thought that the birth of their child would improve their life as a couple. But the blows continued to rain down. “Nancy's father spoke to her and told her to sort out their marital problems, believing that he would understand,” laments Marie Angel.
Nancy did not dare to go to the police for fear of reprisals. She ended up contacting Jenssy Sabapathee, from the Respecter Nous association, which helps women victims of domestic violence. “I met Nancy about three years ago. She confided in me and told me what a real ordeal she was going through with her husband. The latter mistreated and humiliated her. She explained to me that her husband was unfaithful to her. And she couldn't take it anymore. Since he was staying at her house, she repeatedly told him to leave. But he apologized to her. I told him to go to the police and take steps to get a Protection Order,” she says.
” She was afraid “
Nancy also confided in a close friend. “Every time she was beaten, she called me to cry. I told her to go see her father, but she refused and told me not to do anything. She was afraid of her husband,” the young woman told us in tears, on condition of anonymity.
Then Nancy got pregnant again. The arrival of the little one, now four months old, only made Jonathan more angry, according to his aunt. “He didn't want this child and had asked my niece to have an abortion, but she didn't want to,” says Marie Angel, who says she found out much later.
Her children were the apple of her eye. Nancy wanted to end this toxic relationship for her children. But on June 2, everything changed for the young mother. Jonathan had called his wife's father to tell him that Nancy was sick and that she had subsequently died. But this version of events had not convinced this father, devastated by the tragic loss of his daughter. After the funeral, he asked for a thorough investigation into Nancy's death.
The Flacq CID finally got Jonathan Merle to talk, and he confessed to the murder of his wife. On Wednesday, he took part in a reconstruction of the events. Many people in the neighborhood showed their anger at his horrible act.
Argy Residence revolted by this atrocious crime
Angelina and her mother Edwige are revolted. They live a few meters from the couple Nancy and Jonathan Merle. “Nancy was a very good friend. Her husband came by every time, but nothing suggested that he was so violent. He greeted us. He looked like an angel, but he hid his game well in front of people,” says Angelina.
“When Nancy died, I went to her house. I found the way his room was arranged strange. Her husband said she had just died, but looking at her, her death seemed to have happened much earlier,” she adds.
He lied to us all this time, Angelina says indignantly. “At his wife's funeral, he pretended to be unwell. However, he didn’t seem any more affected than that by Nancy’s death,” she says.
