The Pomonti Affair: Betrayed by a Cigarette | Enquêtes criminelles | W9

It was a simple cigarette butt that gave away the killer of Willy Pomonti, a retired architect found dead on April 16 1996 after suffering horrendously at his home in La Celle-Saint-Cloud. This perfectly ordinary man was quietly doing some DIY at home when he was brutally tortured and killed with an electric drill. In the victim’s living room investigators discover an interesting clue: in an ashtray are several cigarette butts, of different brands. From all available evidence, Willy Pomonti did not smoke three different brands of cigarette. So there are at least two killers. Only, the DNA taken from these cigarette butts is unknown to the police services. In 2006?ten years later?there’s a dramatic twist! A man, Michel Ambras, a father of four, is arrested for swindling. His DNA is taken and it matches that found on the cigarette left beside the body of Willy Pomonti. Naturally, Michel Ambras is charged with murder, but he vigorously denies the fact.