Beaumont-sur-Oise: Sylvie, found dead in her burnt out car, a forgotten feminicide?

Silence enveloped Sylvie Peixoto's disappearance.

She was 45 years old when the mother of the family was found dead in her burnt car, under the Bernes-sur-Oise bridge, on the evening of January 6, 2018. A silence which is the consequence of her husband's suicide the next day.

He killed himself in an outbuilding of his Beaumont-sur-Oise pavilion, spraying himself with gasoline, before setting himself on fire.

Carlos Alves, 43, was inevitably going to be named as the murderer by the investigation which was therefore closed.

"The investigation for intentional homicide on the person of Sylvie Peixoto was closed for termination of public action, linked to the death by suicide of the perpetrator, Carlos Alves", specifies the prosecutor's office of Pontoise for whom the he criminal origin of Sylvie Peixoto's death leaves little room for doubt.

“The conclusions of the investigation confirm that Mrs. Peixoto was already unconscious when the fire started in her vehicle and had probably been the victim of her husband.

"

Sylvie Peixoto and her husband, suspected of having killed her, were buried side by side by the family in the cemetery of Beaumont-sur-Oise.

LP / Frédéric Naizot.  

According to her brother, Sylvie wanted a divorce

Charles Peixoto, Sylvie's brother, intends to reveal the circumstances of his sister's tragic death, from which he is still not recovering.

He wants to erase the hypothesis of a suicide mentioned just after the fact and restore the truth.

“People need to know what really happened, what Sylvie went through that day.

He killed her.

This is reality, ”emphasizes Charles Peixoto.

“I act in memory of Sylvie and all the women who go through this.

"

This inconsolable brother sent to the whole family and relatives, in France and Portugal, a document in which he recounts the broad outlines of what happened on the evening of January 6, 2019: the death of his sister caused by her husband then his attempt to remove the traces of his crime by setting the car on fire, the body installed in the back seat of the Golf.

Charles Peixoto was able to access certain parts of the gendarmes' investigation.

He evokes an argument which arises within the couple while Sylvie Peixoto was preparing to leave the marital home of Beaumont-sur-Oise.

“She started divorce proceedings in April 2018 and started looking for an apartment.

She planned to tour the agencies on Monday.

"

The body placed in the back seat

He explains that the argument allegedly erupted over a sum of money his sister had set aside and which has disappeared.

Money collected on Sunday markets "to gain independence".

She would have attributed the disappearance to her husband who disputed it and who had also read a text message from a friend received by his sister.

According to the brother, the husband would have suffocated Sylvie before transporting the body.

Charles Peixoto, Sylvie Peixoto's brother.

LP / Frédéric Naizot  

“On the video images of the city, captured by the gendarmes, we see the Golf going off at full speed from the rue de Senlis, jump on the speed bump installed in front of the school and go towards Bernes.

"It is there, under the bridge, around 8 pm, in the middle of the night, that the Golf catches fire," so that it does not show, "he adds.

“In the videos, we see him running back, the hood of his tracksuit on his head.

He looks tired.

He walks a little and returns home.

He leaves later with his van in the direction of the bridge.

"

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The rest of his journey, followed by the cameras, is located in L'Isle-Adam, in the shopping area, where he finds his daughter for dinner.

“After having killed and burned his wife… He had time to come to his senses, to call for help and the gendarmes.

"

In the car, "she was already dead"

But a grain of sand stopped everything.

"If Sylvie had burned, it would have succeeded ...", continues Charles Peixoto.

“But a passer-by saw the flames and alerted the fire department who extinguished the car.

The fire had started in the front seats.

Sylvie's legs were burned.

But it was not charred.

The autopsy would reveal a decisive element a few days later.

“She didn't inhale any smoke.

She was already dead.

"

The Bernes Bridge, under which Sylvie Peixoto's body was found, in her burnt Golf, January 6, 2019. LP / Frédéric Naizot.  

The husband will be heard by the gendarmes before taking his own life the day after the incident, around 11 p.m.

"I think he thought she was going to ruin him by divorcing him", continues Sylvie's brother.

“She just wanted to lead a normal life.

He did not take his own life out of remorse.

He did not assume.

He ran away.

"

Sylvie Peixoto was buried in the Beaumont-sur-Oise cemetery where her grave adjoins that of her husband.

They are decorated with the same plaques.

“They were buried together.

During the ceremony, on each of the coffins, there was a photo of both.

And between the two, the beautiful photo of a couple in love.

As if nothing had happened ”, underlines Charles Peixoto, noting that the complex family history has cast a veil on the facts.

Sylvie should however be buried soon in Portugal adds the brother, father of three children, who is struggling to overcome the disappearance of his sister, because he blames himself for not having been present when it should have been.

"Carlo doesn't want me back: he wants to own me"

“Sylvie had a lot of heart.

She was also frank and direct.

She was brave, braver than me.

She defended me when we were little.

You shouldn't touch your brother!

We had a very difficult childhood with an alcoholic mother who hit us.

We both learned to grow up together in Sarcelles.

Parents who separated were not protecting us.

We were protecting ourselves together.

"

He evokes a young woman who worked very quickly and does not pass the Bac.

“She wanted to be free.

He also tells of the crisis in the couple five years before the tragedy, the departure of his sister, then his return.

“One day she told me: Carlos doesn't want me back.

He wants to own me.

"

Sylvie Peixoto's death is not included in the statistics.

That year, 146 women were killed by their husbands or ex-spouses, according to figures from the investigation by the delegation to victims, published by the interior ministry.

That is 25 more than the previous year.

In 2019, 27 men were also killed by their spouses or ex-companions.