On January 20, 2009, a woman and her two young daughters were found dead in their small apartment in the St. Pierre district of Marseille. The tragedy made the national news for a few hours. Working at the time on various radio programs coproduced by Radio‐Grenouille and ARTE Radio, three reporters from both teams decided to investigate. They went to meet people in the neighbourhood, family, school and community, who might have known Lolita and why she died. Six months of investigation resulted in Who Killed Lolita? (Or Qui a connu Lolita? in its original title) – an audio portrait of the negative space around the body of Lolita and her two children.

Who Killed Lolita? is part of our ongoing series of collaborations with RadioDoc Review – we’re featuring one of their articles on Who Killed Lolita? written by the radio producer Chris Brookes.

Who Killed Lolita? · RadioDoc Review

Who Killed Lolita? was a production for ARTE Radio and Radio‐Grenouille. The authors were Anouk Batard, Mehdi Ahoudig, Olivier Apprill, directed by Mehdi Ahoudig and the mix was by Samuel Hirsch. It won the Prix Europa for Best Radio Documentary in 2010.

Mehdi Ahoudig, author, sound director and filmmaker, creates soundtracks for theatre and dance companies and teaches radio documentary. A regular contributor to ARTE Radio, he has won the Prix Europa three times.