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“We should have noticed that the chimney did not smoke in winter”: the hidden death of Albertine or the denial of a son

2022-09-19T05:55:43.871Z


Albertine lived alone in her house in the village of Bretoncelles, in the Orne. She would have been dead for at least eight years, but the remains of


In Bretoncelles (Orne), a village of 900 mailboxes in the middle of the bocage, you only see tourists.

When Daniel, the former heating engineer, passes through the town centre, everyone greets him with a “How are you?

jovial, inevitably followed by another question: "And your mom?"

Albertine will soon be 100 years old and her robust figure has not appeared in the bakery or at the post office for years.

His 71-year-old son reassures with three words, always the same, never one more: “Everything is fine.

The mayor, Daniel Chevée, conscientiously copied "TVB" on the register where he records the news of the elders of the town.

The first magistrate of Bretoncelles laughs yellow.

All is not well, in reality.

The retired craftsman, who plays Santa Claus every winter on the main street, lied to everyone.

Albertine, born December 31, 1923, died at home and has not moved for at least eight years, maybe ten, ventured the local newspaper Le Perche in one, Wednesday September 14.

The son kept his secret until recent weeks.

The Alençon prosecutor's office has opened an investigation, entrusted to the gendarmes of Mortagne-au-Perche.

Already, the hypothesis circulates of a denial of death, as there are denials of pregnancy.

How else to explain the implausible?

Daniel, Albertine's son, played Santa Claus in winter in the main street of Bretoncelles (Orne).

DR

For years, the heating engineer's blue C15 stopped almost every day in front of his mother's house with sand-colored walls, nestled behind the elms, in La Booz.

The landscape in this hamlet draws a postcard, with its red-robed salters on the soft grass, the blackberries offered to walkers on the dirt roads shaded by oaks, the large grain silo which stands out in the distance.

One fine day the telephone was cut off

Albertine, or rather Marguerite – she liked to be called by her middle name – has disappeared from the background.

Few people remember this old woman in an apron, a woolen cap over her long gray hair.

The former housekeeper of the Bretoncelles doctor, reputed to be so tender with the little ones, made her son promise to let her end her days here.

Every day, between two construction sites, the wire passes.

The fellow, nearly 100 kg for a good 1.85 m, brings the shopping, manages the accounts, pays the bills and taxes.

He works for himself, he has his freedom, and no children.

“It's a cream”, says a young woman from the village.

We know that he is passionate about “great cuisine”.

His father died in 2003. Pierre, the older brother, lives far away and hasn't appeared for years.

Annick, Daniel's wife, fell out with her mother-in-law for a long time, as everyone in the town knows – this strong-willed woman is also a local figure, hairdresser in Bretoncelles for forty years, and municipal councillor.

She has "no right" to enter Albertine's and obeys without being asked.

There is only mother and son.

Annick (in the front row in the center), Daniel's wife, a municipal councilor, hadn't been going to her mother-in-law's for years.

DR

"Albertine spoke of him with great affection and she lacked nothing in the small room where she was always", testifies Cécile (the first name has been changed), one of the few to have visited the old lady for a long time. .

One day it was no longer possible.

“The telephone was cut off, and the doorbell no longer worked.

The date escapes him.

Ouest-France, in its Thursday edition, evokes the year 2014. not insist.

»

A ritual maintained despite the Covid

The C15 still regularly crosses the stream, on the municipal road that goes up to La Booz.

Daniel comes in with shopping bags, comes out with trash cans.

The high gate, the concrete fence in front, the thick hedge on the side of the property prevent anyone from knocking on the tiles.

And who would?

This corner of the countryside has been attracting neo-rurals and city dwellers for several years now, transforming the old shacks into pleasant second homes.

The shutters only open on weekends and during holidays.

Newcomers think the house abandoned.

A neighbor, older than the others, peeked into the garden.

“The grass in front of the gate was not trampled”, proof that “no one came”.

She blames herself.

“We should have noticed that the chimney didn't smoke in winter.

Claude, a retiree who lives a little higher on the Marion valley, asked Daniel.

“He told me not to worry, that his mother was in Ehpad.

»

Daniel was the only one to go to the home of his mother, Albertine, known as Marguerite, where the telephone had been cut off.

LP/Olivier Corsan

Since 2019, serious health problems, then the Covid, have nailed Daniel to the hospital for long weeks.

Who takes care of Albertine, then?

No one knows.

Then Daniel comes back, he lost pounds, can't drive anymore.

It is his wife, Annick, who drops him off in front of the house, in a white car.

He opens the gate with groceries, comes out with trash cans.

Annick picks him up.

Daniel talks to his wife and breaks down

Arrives July 2022, and this heat wave which makes even Normandy sweat.

The mayor calls the over-90s one by one.

For Albertine, it was impossible to find a number.

He goes to La Booz, a neighbor asks him: “Do you have any news?

“He questions Annick for the umpteenth time, who repeats what her husband always says: “She is fine.

This time, the city councilor insists.

He threatens to call the gendarmes, to check.

Four days later, August 29, his cell phone rings in the middle of a meeting of the vice-presidents of the community of communes.

It's Annick: “You have to come, it's very, very urgent.

In front of the house, the firefighters are already there, leaning over the fellow with the white beard lying on the ground.

Daniel became ill immediately after speaking.

The investigators inspected Albertine's house at La Booz for a long time and seals were affixed.

LP/Olivier Corsan

"Albertine is dead?"

asks the city councilor.

" Since yesterday ?

Annick opens her eyes in terror.

" For a week ?

" For years.

The wife and assistant swears she didn't know.

The mayor believes her.

In the village, we wonder.

Who received the pension, and the father's survivor's pension, during all these years?

The gendarmerie investigates, but public rumor already condemns, mezzo voce, those by whom the scandal happened in Bretoncelles.

“We all wonder how it is possible, such a thing”, testifies a trader.

A customer burst into tears in her shop on Thursday.

Here, the over 70s are numerous, many assume parents who are almost centenarians.

Villagers caught between doubts and remorse

“There is a little feeling of guilt in each of us”, confides an elected municipal official who would like “a mass, or a ceremony” in tribute to Albertine.

Sad look: “We had no reason to doubt the word of Daniel and Annick, not them!

Others, less sympathetic, anticipate prison sentences.

The non-declaration of death, however, does not meet any criminal qualification.

But it will be necessary to reimburse the organizations the sums collected after the death of Albertine.

Investigators in overalls inspected the house at La Booz for a long time, and sent the bones for analysis to the anthropology department of the IRCGN, the criminal research lab, which will have to formally identify the body and date its death.

The police placed seals on the gate.

Just behind, there is still the last shopping bag brought to Albertine's, left open in the middle of the garden returned to the wild state, full of brambles.

This summer, in the middle of a heat wave, the mayor called all the elderly people in his town.

Not having heard from Albertine, he expressed his desire to call the gendarmes to check on her condition.

Some time later, Daniel confessed everything to his wife.

LP/Olivier Corsan

At the request of the city council, frightened by the scandal, Annick returned her tricolor scarf as well as the keys to the town hall.

Her position as assistant to security, parties and ceremonies was eliminated on Friday evening.

Annick does not open the door to journalists, "she hides a bit", testifies an acquaintance, who thinks she is leaving, far from Bretoncelles.

Daniel, hospitalized since August 29, was heard once by the gendarmes "but he has not been able to speak since," said someone close to the case.

His state of health is considered worrying.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2022-09-19

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