The autopsies carried out on Monday February 15 after the discovery the day before in Vivier-au-Court in the Ardennes of a man and his daughter who died by guns have confirmed the thesis of a murder committed by the father before his suicide, against a background of "
Crisis
" in the parental couple, said the prosecution.
Read also: Ardennes: a father and his baby discovered dead at their home
The child, barely one year old, "
was killed by a gunshot to the head immediately fatal,
" said Laurent de Caigny, prosecutor of the Republic of Charleville-Mézières, while the autopsy "
did not detect other traces on the child's body
".
“
As for the father of the child, the lesions observed are compatible with the thesis of suicide.
For the medical examiner, there is no reason to doubt the suicide.
There are still toxicological analyzes to be carried out to determine if the father was under the influence of an alcoholic state or of narcotics
”, he added.
These findings “
confirm the mother's initial remarks that the father shot the child before committing suicide
” at the family home.
"
Still hospitalized, the mother could not yet be heard because of her condition
".
The murder-suicide occurred "
in the context of a couple in crisis and under pressure
" with "
in the weeks leading
" of "
great animosity indices
," said the prosecutor, noting that "
the fears had been expressed by the mother
”.
The father did not have a criminal record but in 2017 he "
had been implicated by the father of the two other children born of the mother's first union, for acts of violence
", without the complainant subsequently complaining. manifested again to the police.
"
A criminal investigation for murder and an investigation into the causes of death have been opened
", led by the "
research section of Reims with the support of the Sedan gendarmerie
".
According to the first elements reported by the prosecution, the alert was given on Sunday around 9:30 pm by the mother "
in a situation of distress
" out in the street to indicate that at her home, her husband and a child were dead.
The young woman, evacuated in shock to a hospital, told the gendarmes that “
her husband had killed the child before committing suicide
”.
