Full Name: Khadidja Bengrine

Alternative Name:

Case Status: Missing

Record ID#: 0217

*The names “Jane Doe”  and “John Doe” are English names used when the person’s true name is not known. If used above, the name refers to a person of unknown identity.

Date of Birth*: May 29, 1983
Birthplace: Sidi bel Abbes, Algeria
Age at the Time: 21
Age Group: 20s
Biological Sex: Female
Hair: Long, dark wavy or curly hair
Eyes: Brown
Skin Complexion:
Shoe Size:
Ethnicity: Arab (Other)
Nationality: Algeria
Languages Spoken: Arabic, French

*If the date says January 1, this is often just a placeholder for an unknown specific date. It usually means “sometime that year”.

Physical Build: Slim or Thin

Height:

Weight

Distinguishing Marks:

Medical Condition:
Physical Abnormality:
Dental Condition:
Scars & Other Marks:
Piercings:
Tattoos:

Other Descriptors:

Clothing

Possessions:

Date of the Disappearance*: July 1, 2004

Description: Khadidja Bengrine, a 21-year-old woman originally from Annemasse in Haute-Savoie, France, mysteriously disappeared in the summer of 2004 from her home in Quimperlé, Finistère, in Brittany. She had moved to the region around March 2003 after meeting Philippe Chalony, a 37-year-old former French Foreign Legionnaire with a prior criminal record for theft, at the Quimperlé train station.

The couple quickly began a romantic relationship, and Khadidja, who was estranged from her family, moved in with him. Four months later, they opened a pizzeria together called Point Pizza. Described as having long curly dark brown hair, brown eyes, a slim build, and standing about 1.67 meters tall, Khadidja was last known to be in contact with her mother, Djamila Kennane, via a distressing phone call shortly before vanishing. In that call, Khadidja allegedly said, “Mom, Philippe is scamming me, wait for me at the station, I’m coming home,” suggesting she planned to leave Chalony and return to Haute-Savoie.

On August 19, 2004, Djamila reported her daughter missing to the gendarmerie, but the initial investigation was limited and yielded no leads, despite renewed efforts at the family’s request in 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2010. No signs of life from Khadidja have been detected since, including no matches with unidentified bodies or financial activity. The case faded into obscurity until 2021, when Djamila, in desperation, contacted the Association pour la Recherche de Personnes Disparues (ARPD), which advocated for reopening the file. This led to the involvement of France’s specialized cold case unit, the Pôle des crimes sériels et non élucidés (PCSNE) at the Nanterre judicial court, established in 2022 to handle over 130 unsolved disappearances and homicides.

The investigation relaunched in July 2022 with fresh searches for Khadidja and scrutiny of Chalony, who had been interviewed only as a witness in the original probe. Key developments included excavations in June 2023 at a property in Port-Launay near Châteaulin, linked to Chalony’s past residences, though no remains were found. On June 13, 2023, Chalony—then 56 and already detained on unrelated charges—was arrested alongside one of his ex-partners. He was indicted for “kidnapping followed by death” (later framed as “sequestration followed by death”) and placed in pretrial detention. Chalony maintains his innocence, claiming Khadidja left voluntarily with another man, but investigators cite inconsistencies in his accounts and evidence of a controlling relationship.

As of late September 2025, the instruction phase concluded in early August, with the probe officially favoring a homicide hypothesis implicating Chalony. The Nanterre cold case unit is now deciding whether to proceed to trial, potentially making this the first such case from the unit to reach court. The family continues to seek information through ARPD, contactable at 06 74 55 52 27 for tips. Despite exhaustive efforts, Khadidja’s body remains undiscovered, leaving the case a poignant example of the challenges in “no-body” homicides under French law, where convictions can still proceed on circumstantial evidence.

If she left of her own volition, she may have visited Switzerland, Italy, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, or Germany.

Multiple Victims?: No

Rumored or Actual Sightings:

*If the date says January 1, this is often just a placeholder for an unknown specific date. It usually means “sometime that year”.

Date the Body was Recovered:

Description: Unknown

Time of Death:

Cause of Death:

Recovered Remains (if partial):

Suspected Homicide?: Yes

Multiple Victims?: No

DNA Tested (No Match):

*If the date says January 1, this is often just a placeholder for an unknown specific date. It usually means “sometime that year”.

Description:

License Plate:

Description: Philippe Chalony, born around 1967, is a French national and former member of the French Foreign Legion. At 37 in 2004, he met 21-year-old Khadidja Bengrine at Quimperlé train station, initiating a relationship marked by control and financial disputes; they cohabited and opened a pizzeria. With a prior theft conviction, Chalony’s criminal history escalated: by 2023, at age 56, he was imprisoned for raping his stepdaughter and sexually assaulting her friend. Indicted that June for “sequestration followed by death” in Khadidja’s case—initially interviewed as a witness—he denies involvement, inconsistently claiming she left with another man. He remains in pretrial detention as of September 2025, with the investigation concluding in his favor of homicide charges, pending trial decision.