A mother and her two children aged 13 years and 18 months, were found dead Thursday morning in their pavilion in Dreux (Eure-et-Loir). The woman's ex-spouse, and father of the two children, is currently wanted to be interviewed by investigators.
What happened?
Rescuers discovered Thursday at the family home the lifeless bodies of a woman, born in 1987, and her two children, a 13-year-old girl and a male baby, about 18 months old. It is neighbors who would have warned the rescue, said sources close to the investigation to the Parisian. The mother and two children lived without the father, after a separation of the couple.
The baby was found in the same room as his mother and the teenager in her own room.
The bodies had wounds and "the first findings lead to favor the use of a knife by the perpetrator," said in a statement the prosecutor of Chartres Frédéric Chevallier, who seized the territorial direction of the judicial police of Orleans.
"The hypothesis of the homicide of the two children by their mother and the suicide of the latter is not totally ruled out but remains very subsidiary," added the magistrate, stressing that "the intervention of a third party in the commission of criminal acts" is "privileged".
Why is the father suspected?
The former spouse of the thirty-year-old is suspected, he is currently wanted by investigators to be heard. He had been sentenced in September 2021 for violence against his wife and daughter to one year in prison, including four months suspended probation, with the prohibition to contact them.
"In this context, it has evolved appropriately, respecting for the most part, that is to say the prohibitions of appearance and contacts, the obligations and prohibitions decided by the trial court," writes the prosecutor of Chartres.
However, his ex-wife had filed a complaint Wednesday for theft of jewelry and documents, suspecting his ex of having kept a duplicate of the keys of the house, confirmed the prosecutor. The mother had also filed a complaint on May 9 after discovering a GPS tracker under her car.
The mother had been summoned in connection with this case on Monday, May 22 for a further hearing, but had not appeared before the police. Her ex-spouse had been summoned on June 2. According to information from Le Parisien, the man made a suicide attempt a few weeks ago.
"He was going crazy, he didn't accept the separation," a neighbour told AFP. Another neighbor said the mother had come to see him on Wednesday at 18 p.m., telling him "I'm afraid". She had wanted to file for divorce for several years, according to this neighbor.
What does the suspect say?
Nowhere to be found for the moment, a few hours before the discovery of the bodies, the father of the family posted on Facebook two messages accusing his wife of having cheated on him and hitting his daughter, accompanied by photos showing bruises on a forearm. "I will stop my life," he wrote.
In a video, the forty-year-old, hearing impaired, speaks sign language. "She has cheated on me with other men many times and my daughter knew that. (...) My wife told him that if she told me everything, she would hit her," he said, according to a transcript made by AFP.
The forensic identification was on site Thursday afternoon to make the first findings. At this stage, "the flagrant criminal investigation continues, under the direction and control of the Chartres prosecutor's office," said Frédéric Chevallier.
