GRENOBLE, France: French prosecutors said Thursday (Friday in Manila) they had cracked a 36-year-old cold case after charging a man with the murder of a young woman who disappeared in a small Alpine town in the 1980s. Marie-Therese Bonfanti, a 25-year-old mother of two, went missing while delivering newspapers in Pontcharra, north-east of Grenoble, and her body was never found. Local prosecutor Eric Vaillant said that a man had been charged with her murder and had 'confessed to having killed her' while in custody. He had been considered a suspect at the time of the disappearance due to his violent character. Prosecutors believe the murder was due to a 'dispute,' rather than being sexually motivated. The case was reopened in 2020, thanks to campaigning from Bonfanti's family and her husband.
