One of France’s most high-profile missing person cases has taken a dramatic new turn, after a man convicted of murdering his wife despite never having her body recovered has privately confessed to the killing from behind bars.
Thirty-eight-year-old Cédric Jubillar, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the 2020 murder of his 33-year-old spouse Delphine Jubillar, disclosed his guilt in a confidential letter sent to his legal team. The revelation comes nearly 18 months after a mixed jury of six civilians and three judicial magistrates found sufficient circumstantial evidence to uphold a guilty murder verdict, and just two months before his scheduled appeal hearing was set to begin.
According to Jubillar’s current lead attorney Pierre Debuisson, who took over the case after the original trial, the convicted killer first revealed the truth in a private meeting several weeks ago. Debuisson told reporters at a press conference held Monday that Jubillar stated simply: “I need to tell you the truth. It was me.”
The confession confirms that Jubillar killed Delphine during a heated argument at the couple’s family home in the southern French town of Cagnac-les-Mines in December 2020, and that he drove his vehicle to move her body to an undisclosed location after the killing. The convicted man has also agreed to guide investigators to the site where he disposed of her remains, a development that will bring long-awaited closure to a case that gripped French public attention for nearly four years.
The case first emerged in the early hours of December 16, 2020, at the height of France’s national Covid-19 lockdown, when Jubillar contacted local police at 4 a.m. local time to report his wife missing. Delphine, a night nurse working at a nearby clinic, left behind two young children aged six and 18 months at the time of her disappearance.
Investigations quickly revealed that the couple’s marriage was deeply unstable. Court documents showed Cédric Jubillar struggled with daily cannabis use and irregular employment, while Delphine had started an extramarital relationship with a man she met online and had begun discussing divorce proceedings with her husband.
Over the following years, law enforcement teams and local volunteers carried out exhaustive searches across the surrounding rural countryside, including specialized cave diving teams that explored dozens of abandoned mine shafts that dot the Tarn department landscape. Despite the extensive search operation, Delphine’s remains were never located, and the case relied entirely on circumstantial evidence to secure a conviction in 2023.
Throughout the original trial, Jubillar maintained his complete innocence, a position he held until his recent confession. His legal team confirmed that the admission of guilt will almost certainly lead to a postponement of the upcoming appeal, which was scheduled to start in two months.
For Delphine Jubillar’s two children, who are represented by attorney Malika Chmani, the confession marks a long-awaited breakthrough. “We are relieved for the children. Now he needs to tell us where the body is. I think that is what is going to happen now. I hope so,” Chmani told reporters Monday.