Lucas Tronche (April 18, 1999 – disappeared March 18, 2015) was a French teenager who disappeared from his hometown of Bagnols-sur-Cze in the Gard department in southern France at the age of 15. His skeletal remains were found more than six years later in June 2021 near his home, in an area where he often went to collect rocks for his hobby in geology. His cause of death remains unknown.
Lucas Tronche was born on April 18, 1999 and was the second youngest of four brothers. His parents, Nathalie and ric, are both engineers at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission at the Marcoule Nuclear Site.
Lucas’s family and friends describe him as a balanced, cheerful, friendly and helpful teenager who loves animals and nature and does not like to disappoint others. He was considered an ordinary 15-year-old boy with no personal or family problems. He was in his first year of the three-year French high school system at the Lyce Albert Einstein in Bagnols-sur-Cze. According to teachers, he was a good student and wanted to become a veterinarian. He was introverted, sociable and passionate about Scouting, having been a member of his local scout troop for several years. He also attended badminton and swimming clubs. He rarely used social media, but was often on Snapchat. At the time of his disappearance, he and his parents were planning a trip to the United States.
Disappearance
On Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at 5:10 PM, Tronche had planned to go to a bus stop on his scooter, where he would take a bus to the public swimming pool of Laudun-l’Ardoise to swim with his 17-year-old brother Valentin. His brother left before Lucas, expecting Lucas to join him at the bus stop. Lucas left the family home and locked the door, but did not show up at the bus stop. Valentin tried to contact Lucas around 5:30 pm, but Lucas’ cell phone was turned off. Technical analysis would later reveal that Lucas’s phone was turned off at 5:14 p.m., a few minutes before he left the house. Tronche left without his swimming gear, but did take a backpack with very few items. He had no money, a sleeping bag, or a knife with him—things that, as an avid explorer with a good knowledge of outdoor survival, he would have taken with him if he had planned to leave the house. It is not known where Lucas planned to go.
Around 8 pm, Nathalie Tronche went to the bus stop to pick up Valentin and Lucas. Valentin told his mother that Lucas had not come to the pool; he assumed Lucas had missed the bus and stayed home. Nathalie had been home for the past two hours, so she knew Lucas wasn’t there. Nathalie contacted A&E to see if Lucas may have had an accident and gone to the hospital. She then contacted Lucas’s friends, none of whom knew where he was. She then contacted the police, who opened a missing persons investigation. ric Tronche was notified of his son’s disappearance when he returned home from work around 11pm.
Research
The police opened an ‘enqute pour disparition inquitante’ in the evening of March 18, 2015 (investigation into a worrying disappearance), immediately after contact with Nathalie Tronche. On March 25, the investigation was handed over to the Regional Judicial Police Service of Montpellier (SRPJ) and the OCRVP (Central Office for the Punishment of Violence Against Persons). Tronche did not fit the profile of a runaway and on March 30, the Nmes prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into kidnapping and illegal detention. Due to Tronche’s profile and lack of supporting evidence, some theories such as suicide and fleeing to the Middle East to fight for or against the Islamic State were rejected.
Police questioned Tronche’s friends, teachers, sports coaches and teammates on several occasions, as well as drivers who had driven through Bagnols-sur-Cze on the day of his disappearance. A formal court request has been made to US authorities to access Tronche’s conversations and exchanges on Snapchat, which are deleted from the app after a few seconds but remain on Snapchat’s servers. The request was granted, but Snapchat’s activities did not reveal anything of use to the investigation. Tronche’s computer and tablet were seized and searched, but nothing of any significance was found.
Several witnesses reported seeing a person who could have been Lucas a few hours after his disappearance. A neighbor claimed to have seen Lucas on the day of his disappearance between 5:15 and 5:30 p.m. walking down the chemin de Saduran towards the vineyards, in the opposite direction from the pool. 500 yards from that point, another woman reported seeing someone who could possibly be Lucas crossing a yard in front of her farm at noon on Thursday, March 19. A dog followed that person’s scent for 1 kilometer to the north. Also on March 19, at 6:30 pm, Rachid Ghamri, a friend of the Tronche family, was out with volunteers when he saw in the distance the silhouette of a person of youthful appearance standing on top of a hill. Ghamri took a photo, but due to the fact that it was dusk, the photo was unclear and the person photographed could not be identified. Another team of volunteers later claimed to have seen Lucas in the hills above Saint-Gervais at 10:30 a.m. Monday, March 23. The person believed to be Lucas was seen watching vineyard workers before disappearing into the woods. A week after the disappearance, a motorcyclist passing through a neighboring village reported seeing Tronche in the late afternoon of March 23. The boy walked with a backpack along a path towards Esbrezun, a hamlet in the commune of Saint-Andr-de-Roquepertuis, towards a hill. The area was searched with dogs and a helicopter. In a final sighting, a teenage boy and his father reported seeing Lucas at a Cultura store in Le Pontet, in the Vaucluse department, on Saturday afternoon, March 28. He would be accompanied by a woman aged 45 to 50. Investigation of this clue turned up nothing.
A few days after Lucas’s disappearance, investigators used Luminol – a product that reacts to the presence of blood – to search for possible traces of DNA from Lucas’s bedroom and the rest of the house. Some traces of blood were found on the carpet by his bed and examined to determine whether it was blood or simply the Luminol reacting to a household cleaner. New tests were carried out in May 2017. No results of either test have been made public.
In October 2015, seven months after Tronche’s disappearance, his parents began to receive strange anonymous letters saying that Lucas was in good health and not to worry. The sender was traced thanks to camera surveillance at the sorting office. In total, eleven letters were sent until the beginning of the summer of 2016. Detectives arrested a person on July 12, 2016, but the 57-year-old dreamer from Valence turned out to have nothing to do with Lucas’s disappearance. In October 2017, a court in Nmes sentenced him to one year in prison, with another year suspended.
In December 2016, the French National Police released a composite sketch in an attempt to locate a witness seen by a passerby near Lucas’ home on the day of his disappearance. The sketch was modified in September 2017 and made more accurate.
On March 1, 2016, almost a year after Tronche’s disappearance, 16-year-old Antoine Zoia disappeared in Clarensac, a village 62 km from Bagnols-sur-Cze, after leaving his home around 1:30 pm. Zoia was a second year high school student majoring in Science at Lyce Albert Camus in Nmes and his character was considered similar to Lucas. Zoia was last seen buying a pack of cigarettes in a tobacco shop. An investigation was launched to determine if there could be a connection between these two disappearances of teenage boys with similar characteristics from nearby locations in less than a year. However, on October 2, 2018, Zoia’s body was found hanging in a remote wooded area near Clarensac; no traces of a crime were found
On January 11, 2018, detectives began investigating whether Nordahl Lelandais, the prime suspect in another August 2017 disappearance case (Malys de Araujo), could be linked to both disappearances. Lelandais has been regularly in the Gard and has family near Bagnols-sur-Cze. ]On February 27, 2018, he was acquitted as a suspect in Lucas’s disappearance because his phone records showed that he was more than 100 miles away on the day of his disappearance.
On October 18, 2018, the person seen at the bus stop on the day of Lucas’s disappearance was located and taken for questioning, but police were unable to find anything linking the man to the disappearance.
Initiatives and search efforts
Lucas’s disappearance caused a national wave of emotion and many searches were conducted by the authorities, Lucas’s family and many private individuals who did not know the family but were eager to help. Already on the day after the disappearance, soldiers patrolled the surrounding areas and organized numerous searches. Hills, cliffs and trails were searched in a 4 km radius around both Lucas’ house and the Cze River. Thermal vision helicopters, dog teams, and water search and rescue personnel also participated in searches.
Witness calls have been made and renewed on a regular basis. In the days following Luca’s disappearance more than 1,500 people participated in searches. Thousands of others shared news and photos on social networks along with the slogan “Je cherche Lucas” (“I’m looking for Lucas”). French public figures such as Maurane, Bernard Weber Jean-Pierre Foucault , Rmi Gaillard and Renan Luce have issued a public appeal to find Lucas.
In the months following Lucas’s disappearance, his parents appeared on many television programs to promote the case as widely as possible and thus support the investigation. The case has also been widely reported on television news programs such as Sept huit and 13 h 15, le samedi.
Posters have been put up in more than 1,000 towns and cities across France.
In October, the Retrouvons Lucas (“Let’s Find Lucas”) foundation was created to continue efforts to find him.
On March 19, 2016, one year and one day after Tronche’s disappearance, a balloon release took place in Bagnols-sur-Cze and about 30 other towns and cities across France.
In May 2016, a major poster campaign was launched to locate Lucas and giant 4 by 3 meter signs were placed along the road in the departments of Gard, Drme and Vaucluse. Between August and October 2016, billboard company Retrouvons JCDecaux provided free billboards all over France featuring Lucas, and a 10-second video of the missing person was played at gas stations across France.
Discovery of remains
On June 24 and 25, 2021, some bones and items of clothing suspected of belonging to Lucas Tronche were found in Bagnols-sur-Cze. DNA and genetic tests were performed which confirmed that this was indeed the case.
Passionate about geology, Lucas Tronche regularly went to this area of Bagnols-sur-Cze to find stones for his collection. His cause of death remains undetermined, but the causes of death could be an accidental fall while taking a selfie, murder or suicide.
