The circumstances of death remain to be clarified.
The wife and stepson of a man found dead this weekend in Verdun (Meuse) were indicted for homicide and placed in pre-trial detention, announced Monday the public prosecutor in Nancy, François Capin- Dulhoste.
“The investigation into the causes of this man’s death concluded that a criminal act had been committed,” said the magistrate, confirming information from the regional daily L’Est Républicain.
The Verdun public prosecutor's office, initially seized of the facts, relinquished responsibility in favor of that of Nancy, competent due to the investigation center of the judicial court of this city, specified François Capin-Dulhoste.
“The wife and stepson of the victim, aged respectively 43 and 18 years old, were placed in police custody” and the Nancy public prosecutor’s office “opened a judicial investigation against the two” suspects, said he added.
“In accordance with the requisitions of the public prosecutor, the wife of the victim was indicted for the count of homicide by spouse, the son-in-law of the count of voluntary homicide,” continued the prosecutor.
“Both were placed in pre-trial detention,” he added.
Altercation
According to L'Est Républicain, this man in his forties, originally from the Étain region (Meuse), was found dead at the foot of a monument in Verdun on Saturday.
The wife and son-in-law admitted to the police “that the man had not fallen alone,” Sophie Partouche, public prosecutor in Verdun, told the newspaper on Monday.
There would have been an altercation and he would have “ended up falling over”, according to the Verdun prosecutor's office, cited by L'Est Républicain and which specified that “the circumstances of the death remain to be determined”.