The 24-year-old young woman, a waitress at the Constellation bar during the New Year’s Eve tragedy, was one of the nine French people who lost their lives in the Crans-Montana fire in Switzerland. Her mother believes that she was “under the influence” of the couple who ran the establishment.
“I don’t want to dwell in anger. I want to move on to something else, and I hope that justice will deal with this couple.” 111 days after the deadly fire in Crans-Montana, which claimed the lives of 41 people on New Year’s Eve, Cyane’s loved ones are accusing the couple who owned the Constellation, the site of the tragedy.
Astrid Panine, the mother of the 24-year-old waitress who perished in the fire, denounces on Wednesday, April 22 on RTL a form of “influence” exerted by Jacques and Jessica Moretti on her daughter Cyane.
“She left twice, she came back twice, so she was under their influence. They made her believe many things and they were lovely to her, but their actions did not show respect,” Astrid Panine asserts.
“I have very little hope that these people will take responsibility”
Astrid Panine says she has “very little hope” of obtaining satisfactory answers to her questions at the end of the legal process more than three months after her daughter’s death.
“When people have such disdain and such behavior at the time of the first hearings, I have very little hope that these people will take responsibility. Each one passes the buck to the other, like the Moretti couple does with their own employees. From there, I don’t have too many illusions,” she says.
“My hope would be that they (the Morettis) really acknowledge their responsibilities, that they say ‘yes, we are responsible, we did that’. Clearly say ‘we accept the punishment that we deserve’. But well, as I know that this kind of person never or rarely changes, it would really take a miracle,” Cyane’s mother lashes out.
“They were quite upset”
The Moretti couple sparked the anger of the young waitress’s loved ones in the days following the tragedy. “Cyane’s family did not really take Mrs. Moretti’s reaction well to her apologies,” explained Me Sophie Haenni, lawyer for Cyane Panine’s family, on BFMTV on January 14.
“They were quite upset because for them, it did not match the behavior she had on the evening of December 31,” the lawyer continues.
During the hearings, Jessica Moretti and her husband Jacques claimed to have a loving and close relationship with the young waitress. Cyane was also the girlfriend of Jean-Marc, who considers himself the “adopted son” of the Constellation’s owners and who “fully supports them.”
But according to Cyane’s lawyer, “the image that the Moretti family is trying to portray is inconsistent with some elements in the file” and “there was no familiarity” between the waitress and the establishment’s owners. “They used formal language in the messages,” emphasizes Me Sophie Haenni. As for the messages, they were “mostly orders given by Jessica Moretti to Cyane.”
“When on Christmas Day, she eats with them and two hours later, she has to go to work, I’m sorry, we don’t do that to our ‘little sister’,” Astrid Panine criticizes on RTL this Wednesday.
“A young woman at the end of her strength”
Camille Catillo, Cyane’s best friend, also interviewed on the airwaves on Wednesday, describes the young woman as “at the end of her strength” and “sick” on New Year’s Eve.
“She had a cold, (…) she was not feeling well. She went to work because she knew they needed her,” recalls Camille Catillo.
In early April, Astrid Panine launched a project on social media, “Operation Butterfly,” to “give meaning to this tragedy” by inviting internet users to participate by sharing, on social media, “a photo or video of a moment that captures a kind action, support, or simply a happy sharing moment” with the hashtag #operationpapillonC.
