Sid Ahmed Rezala

Sid Ahmed Rezala (May 13, 1979 – June 28, 2000) was an Algerian-born French serial killer, dubbed "The Killer of the Trains". He was suspected of killing at least three women in 1999. Arrested in Portugal in early 2000, he confessed his murders to a reporter from the Figaro Magazine.[1] Several weeks later, he committed suicide before he could be extradited to France. He died of asphyxiation after he had intentionally set fire to the mattress in his cell while his prison guards were watching football on TV.[2]

Sid Ahmed Rezala
BornMay 13, 1979
El Biar, Algeria
DiedJune 28, 2000(2000-06-28) (aged 21)
Lisbon, Portugal
Cause of deathSuicide
Other names"The Killer of the Trains"
Height5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Spouse(s)
Nadia
(
m. 1997)
Children1 daughter (b. 1998)
Details
Victims3
Span of crimes
October 13, 1999–December 14, 1999
CountryFrance
Date apprehended
January 11, 2000

Biography

Born in Algeria, Sid Ahmed Rezala moved with his parents, brothers and sister to the southern French port of Marseille in 1994. Within weeks of registering at a Marseille high school, he began playing truant and mixing with petty criminals and drug dealers around the Marseille St Charles Train Station, and riding on trains.[3] In early 1995, three months before his 16th birthday, Rezala was arrested for the rape of a 14-year-old boy.[4] On December 7, 1995, the 16-year-old rapist was sentenced in juvenile court to four years imprisonment.[5] He was released in late 1996 after 18 months in prison.

In 1998, he was sent to a young offenders institution at Luynes near Aix-en-Provence, for pulling a knife on a French railway employee.[4] On June 29, 1999, he was released from jail.[6]

French police launched a massive manhunt for Sid Ahmed Rezala in December 1999 after the murder of British student Isabel Peake who was thrown from a train, and the subsequent killings of a 36-year-old French mother and a one-time girlfriend.[7] Having fled to the Portuguese capital via Spain, Rezala made a phone call to his girlfriend from a public call box – unaware that investigators in France had tapped her phone.[8] On January 11, 2000, Rezala's hiding place was snuffed out by Portuguese police, who arrested the man in Barreiro, south of Lisbon. He had been staying in Almada with friends of a Spanish acquaintance and was planning to leave within 24 hours for Spain's Canary Islands.[9]

On June 28, 2000, the 21-year-old Rezala, who confessed to killing three women, killed himself by setting fire to his cell in the psychiatric wing of the Caxias Prison Hospital near Lisbon where he was being held awaiting extradition to France[10] to face trial for the murder of three women.[11]

Victims

Rezala is suspected of murdering at least these three women:

Isabel Peake

Isabel Peake, a 20-year-old English student at Limoges university, who was waiting at Limoges station for a train to Paris on her way home to Barlaston, Staffordshire.[12] On 13 October 1999, she boarded the train to Paris, on her way home for a visit. Her body was found the next day by a local farmer who discovered her partially-clothed and dismembered corpse, and her baggage was found strewn along the line. Before dawn, police think she was pushed from the train as it travelled at about 125km/h (78mph) through the disused station at Chabenet, central France,[12] possibly after a sexual assault.[4]

Émilie Bazin

Émilie Bazin, a 20-year-old student, was found strangled in a house in Amiens, northern France.[13] On December 17, 1999, her decomposed body was discovered by police, two months after her death, buried beneath a heap of coal in a cellar in Amiens.[9] Traces of Rezala's DNA were found on her body.[14]

Corinne Caillaux

On December 14, 1999, Corinne Caillaux, 36, was stabbed to death in the lavatory of a Calais to Ventimiglia overnight train while her infant son slept in a carriage.[15] Guards found her slumped in a pool of blood in a train toilet. She had been stabbed at least 13 times while her 6-year-old son lay sleeping,[16] and died later from her injuries. The inspectors found a blood-soaked baseball hat close to her body. Rezala was wearing a similar cap when he was found travelling without a ticket about two hours earlier, on the journey from Calais to Ventimiglia on the Italian frontier. DNA tests are being conducted on hairs found in the hat. Police have records of Rezala's DNA taken after earlier crimes.[17]

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References
  1. Jacqueline Coignard, "Rezala avoue tout devant un journaliste. De sa prison, il raconte, avec force détails, les meurtres des trois jeunes femmes", Libération, May 20, 2000. (in French)
  2. Lesley Hussell, "Isabel's Killer Dies as Prison Guards Watch Soccer on TV", Daily Mail, June 30, 2000.
  3. Paul Webster, "Teen rapist with the cruel mind of a child", The Guardian, January 16, 2000.
  4. "A sinister charmer", BBC News, January 15, 2000.
  5. Condamné trois fois depuis 1995", Le Télégramme, January 12, 2000. (in French)
  6. Naour, Sylvestre; Simmonot, Dominique; Tourancheau, Patricia, "Les vies multiples d'Ahmed Sid Rezala. Jeune père, délinquant, charmeur et serial killer présumé: portrait de l'homme le plus recherché de France.", Libération, December 20, 2000. (in French)
  7. "Suspect serial killer seized", The Irish Times, January 12, 2000.
  8. "Train killer attempts suicide", The Portugal News, January 22, 2000.
  9. "French 'train killer' caught in Lisbon", The Portugal News, January 15, 2000.
  10. "'Train killer' dies in prison fire", The Guardian, June 30, 2000.
  11. Bell, Susan & Andrew Walker, "Train murder suspect kills himself in cell", The Scotsman, June 30, 2000.
  12. "Peake suspect's alleged victims", BBC News, June 29, 2000.
  13. "'Confession' in Peake murder", BBC News, May 19, 2000.
  14. Stéphane Albouy, "L'ADN de Rezala l'accuse formellement", Le Parisien, August 30, 2000. (in French)
  15. "Outrage at bungles that let Isabel killer escape justice", by Patrick Bishop in Paris and Maurice Weaver, The Telegraph, June 30, 2000.
  16. "French police seek suspect in night-train murder", Deseret News, December 20, 1999.
  17. John Lichfield, "French police hopeful in hunt for train killer", The Independent, December 17, 1999.
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