The Murder of Alexia Daval

The disappearance story

On the morning of October 28, 2017, Jonathann Daval told police that his wife Alexia had gone out running and had not returned. Alexia, a 29-year-old bank employee, was quickly the subject of a large local search. Her body was found two days later in woodland near Esmoulins, not far from the couple’s home in Haute-Saône.

For weeks, Jonathann Daval appeared publicly as a grieving husband. He stood with Alexia’s family at memorial events and remained close to them while investigators tested the account that she had disappeared during a run. Behind the scenes, however, gendarmes were examining physical evidence, vehicle movements and inconsistencies that increasingly pointed back toward the home.

Evidence shifts the investigation

Investigators identified evidence that contradicted the original jogging narrative. Reporting by Le Monde described tire impressions in the woodland, data from the tracking system of Daval’s work vehicle, and other material that helped investigators reconstruct a nighttime journey from the couple’s residence. The inquiry did not depend on a single confession; detectives had already assembled a substantial evidentiary picture before his arrest.

On January 29, 2018, roughly three months after Alexia’s death, Jonathann Daval was taken into custody. The following day he admitted killing his wife. At that stage he portrayed the death as the result of a domestic argument that had gone wrong, a characterization prosecutors did not accept as an accidental killing.

Changing accounts and a false accusation

The case became unusually complex because Daval repeatedly changed his version of events. After initially admitting responsibility, he later accused Alexia’s brother-in-law, Grégory Gay, and alleged a broader family conspiracy. That accusation was not substantiated. Daval eventually retracted it and again acknowledged responsibility for Alexia’s death.

The shifting stories mattered because the court had to separate what could be proven from what had been suggested during years of publicity. During the investigation, theories involving premeditation, covert poisoning and sexual violence were examined or publicly alleged, but the investigating process did not retain them as sufficiently supported charges. The eventual prosecution focused on murder of a spouse.

Trial at Vesoul

Jonathann Daval went on trial before the Haute-Saône assize court in Vesoul in November 2020. The proceedings lasted six days and revisited the homicide, the false disappearance story and the defendant’s many changes of account. One of the most consequential moments came when Daval acknowledged in court that he had intended to kill Alexia—an intent he had previously resisted admitting.

The prosecution sought life imprisonment. On November 21, 2020, the court instead sentenced him to 25 years of criminal imprisonment. According to Le Monde, the jury deliberated for only a few hours before returning the sentence. Daval’s defense subsequently said he would not appeal.

Timeline

What the verdict did — and did not — establish

The verdict established Jonathann Daval’s criminal responsibility for intentionally killing his wife. It did not validate every theory that circulated during the investigation or in media coverage. In particular, assertions about a planned poisoning, other forms of abuse, or a broader family conspiracy should not be presented as judicial findings merely because they appeared at different stages of the case.

The motive also remained less definitive than the identity of the killer. At trial, several explanations were discussed for the breakdown of the couple’s relationship and the fatal confrontation. The court did not need to accept a single psychological narrative in order to convict Daval of murder.

Current status

Jonathann Daval is serving the 25-year sentence imposed in 2020. A 2024 report by Le Monde described him as incarcerated under that sentence, confirming that the murder conviction remains the operative legal outcome. Separate later proceedings and disputes connected to statements about the case do not alter the underlying conviction for Alexia’s murder.

Alexia Daval’s death also became part of a wider French discussion about the language used when women are killed by intimate partners. The public debate sometimes focused heavily on the defendant’s personality or on alleged relationship conflict. A victim-centered record is clearer: Alexia was killed by her husband, he ultimately admitted the killing was intentional, and a criminal court sentenced him to 25 years in prison.