Thirty years after Marion Wagon vanished without a trace in central Agen, a witness statement from a woman who was then a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl has breathed new life into the unresolved investigation.
Since the child’s disappearance on November 14, 1996, in the Lot-et-Garonne department, her photograph has been disseminated across France, marking one of the country’s most enduring criminal mysteries.
The ten-year-old child disappeared on November 14, 1996, shortly after midday while walking from her school to her home about five hundred meters away.
Did You Know? La disparition en 1996 a provoqué une mobilisation nationale exceptionnelle : 15 millions d’affiches avaient été placardées et son visage reproduit sur 10 millions de packs de lait, rappelle TF1.
A New Witness Account Emerges
She described him as roughly thirty years old, of medium height, with a rather swarthy complexion, brown eyes, dark hair, and a thin build, wearing a twisted blue sweater.
The witness explained that the man frightened her so badly that she sought refuge in an apartment building with a classmate. Investigators said that the address where she hid sits directly along the route Marion Wagon walked to reach her home. At the time of the initial investigation, police dogs had tracked the child’s scent to a local area within that same building.
Marie-Céline Lawrysz, deputy public prosecutor at the Nanterre tribunal’s cold cases and serial crimes division, discussed the ongoing appeal for witnesses on BFMTV. She explained that authorities want to identify anyone else who might have been followed or bothered in the area that day.
“We are looking for clues, additional elements, that would allow us to make connections with this recent testimony, regarding young girls who could have been bothered, followed, by an individual who could correspond to the description given by this witness,” Lawrysz told BFMTV.
“If the other leads are not abandoned, it is a new lead that is taking shape,” she continued, adding that investigators cannot ignore a witness description involving a person who followed a schoolgirl near the very spot of the disappearance.
Yves Badorc, the prosecutor of Nanterre, launched a further appeal regarding the disappearance on TF1 on Thursday, November 12. He specifically requested information regarding any suspicious behavior by a man who might have approached or bothered young women or girls in the region during that period. A silent march was previously held in Agen on November 14, 2016, to mark the twentieth anniversary of the disappearance.
Prosecutor office calls advance
Investigators also recovered Marion Wagon’s genetic profile in February 2025 using a poetry notebook and a cap that her parents had preserved. The Nanterre specialized prosecutor’s office called this identification an unquestionable advance in the long-running case.
“Thanks to this DNA, we can now carry out comparisons on criminal seals that include genetic profiles not yet identified to make connections,” Lawrysz said on BFMTV.
The specialized cold cases unit is currently waiting for an application decree that will allow them to add the recovered DNA profile to the National Automated DNA Fingerprinting File, known as the FNAEG. Meanwhile, the magistrate emphasized that any small detail from that period remains useful for the ongoing investigation.
Hope for the Family
Regarding the parents, Michel and Françoise Wagon, reports indicate they are regaining hope of perhaps one day learning the truth. Their lawyer, Me Georges Catala, said that the family is also focused on the potential involvement of a former neighbor who died by suicide in 1998, a lead the family believes should be examined with rigor.
Witness reports the incident
Why did the witness wait to report being followed?
The woman was a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl at the time and was questioned by investigators the day after the disappearance, but she did not mention the incident during that initial interview, according to Le HuffPost.
How was the genetic profile obtained after so many years?
Experts in genetics recovered the profile in February 2025 using a poetry notebook and a cap that the victim’s parents had carefully preserved for nearly thirty years, as reported by 6Medias.
What does the judicial unit plan to do with the DNA profile next?
The specialized unit is awaiting an application decree to add the profile to the national automated DNA database, which would enable comparisons with unidentified traces from crime scenes or unidentified bodies.
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