On Thursday, February 19, 2026, firefighters responding to a blaze in an apartment in Esbly, Seine-et-Marne, made a gruesome discovery: the body of a 32-year-old woman who had been "strangled and eviscerated." The victim's two young children were taken into the care of medical-judicial units at the Grand Hôpital de l’Est-Francilien (GHEF). Authorities are currently searching for the children's father, from whom the victim was separated, but the prosecutor, Jean-Baptiste Bladier, indicated that multiple investigative avenues are being pursued. A flagrant offense investigation for voluntary homicide and destruction by fire has been opened and assigned to the Paris Research Section, with the Meaux Research Brigade also involved.