Four days after the discovery of the bodies of a woman and her two children killed with a knife in a pavilion in Dreux (Eure-et-Loir), the former spouse of the mother was indicted on Monday and placed in provisional detention. This indictment comes after his arrest in Plaisir (Yvelines) and his placement in police custody in Orleans. On Sunday, the latter was extended until Monday.
The suspect, aged 46, "denies any involvement" in the criminal facts on which he is questioned, said the prosecutor of Chartres at the time of the extension of his hearing by investigators.
The man was arrested late Saturday morning "following the call of an employee of a phone shop" where he had already presented the day before. The shopkeeper recognized him and alerted the police, who quickly arrested him.
Already convicted of violence against his wife and daughter
Placed in custody, he was transferred Saturday afternoon to the Orleans police station to be heard by the judicial police on the facts of "aggravated voluntary homicide". He was hospitalized on Monday after injuring himself in court during his referral to the prosecutor's office.
In the investigation into the triple homicide of Dreux, this man appears as the main suspect. He was sentenced in September 2021 for violence against his wife and daughter to one year in prison, four months of which were suspended, with the prohibition to contact them.
"I'm going to stop my life"
A few hours before the discovery of the bodies, the father of the family had 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.
He is suspected of having carried "forty stab wounds" to his ex-wife, and a dozen on each child. The autopsies of the three bodies are scheduled "at the beginning of the week in Rouen", according to the prosecutor of Chartres Frédéric Chevallier.