A man suspected of having murdered his ex-partner by poisoning her with mercury, imprisoned Thursday, was found dead Sunday in his cell, said the Paris prosecutor's office, confirming information from
Actu 17
.
An investigation to find the causes of death was opened and the investigations were entrusted to the 3rd judicial police district.
According to a source close to the case, it is a suicide.
The 50-year-old man was indicted on Thursday for premeditated poisoning, a crime punishable by life, and remanded in custody.
He had disputed the facts, according to a source familiar with the matter.
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The motive for this possible feminicide would be the refusal by the man to separate from the couple.
Catherine D., a 46-year-old entrepreneur living in the north of the capital, died on January 19.
She would have started complaining in the fall of violent headaches and overwhelming fatigue, before being hospitalized in mid-October, according to the newspaper
Le Parisien
.
While the doctors saw his condition deteriorate, the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital would have received many messages from his ex-companion suggesting that they study the trail of mercury poisoning.
This poisoning would have finally been corroborated by a toxicological analysis, which dated it several months earlier.
The report of the doctors to justice triggered the opening by the Paris prosecutor's office of a judicial investigation on January 18 for poisoning with premeditation.
Still according to Le Parisien, the search of the suspect's home, in which his ex-partner and their two young children lived before their separation, would have made it possible to update empty bottles of a toxic product based on mercury.
