“The tension has subsided, we don’t talk about it anymore in the village. “In Bullecourt, in the Pas-de-Calais, the assassination of a tax inspector, on November 21, seems to be part of the past, according to the town clerk, during her permanence on Monday noon. However, two weeks after the tragedy, the shadow of this crime still hovers among the 250 inhabitants. Especially since the exact circumstances are still a little unclear.
The prosecutor of Arras had explained, the day after the events, that the victim, Ludovic M. had presented himself with a tax colleague, at the beginning of the afternoon, at the home of Sandy T., a self-employed specialist garage sale. The tax audit had ended in a bloodbath.
“Looks like a movie script”
Alerted by the junk dealer’s wife, the gendarmes had found the inspector “tied to a chair” using clamps, the body of the other official, Ludovic M., killed by “several stab wounds in the back and chest” and, finally, that of Sandy T. who seemed to have killed himself with a firearm. An investigation for “assassination” had been opened.
“It sounds like a movie script. We could never have imagined that here, ”worries Chantal, a fifty-year-old. To write that Bullecourt is a commune without history would be to lie. Various facts are rare there, but a little more than a century ago, the village was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War. Fifteen to twenty thousand soldiers lost their lives there in the space of a few days, in April and May 1917. An Australian memorial has frozen the trace.
And the news crossing the planet at the speed of social networks, the story of the recent drama has thus reached Australia. “A resident received a message from Australian friends who told him about it,” says Sylvie, the manager of the cafe called Le Canberra. “It’s unfortunate, this case. But since then, we don’t know anything and people here don’t talk about it anymore, ”she says.
“It’s weird to go on TV like that”
Nothing to do with the excitement of the aftermath of the crime. “We saw a lot of journalists passing by. We even had Belgians at the end of the afternoon, she remembers. It’s weird to be on TV like that. “Because until then, the village was only publicized during the ceremonies of remembrance, each April 25, for Anzac Day, date of the Australian national holiday.
So today, in Bullecourt, it is above all the question of why that remains topical. Why such an act? Why this violence? “Anyone can freak out, but at this point…”, asks Chantal. Especially since the murderer was not necessarily very well known in the town. He had lived there for only four or five years, after having bought the largest farm in Bullecourt.
“I dreamed about it several times”
We have just learned that he was part, for a time, of the festival committee. Fifteen days before the tragedy, a farmer, who wishes to remain anonymous, recounts having discussed with him his financial worries with the tax authorities. But without going into details. “He was a generous guy, always ready to help,” he says. Another villager remembers, on the contrary, an irascible neighbor, capable of insulting a deputy mayor in heated discussions.
“Will we ever find out exactly what happened? asks a retiree who admits to having been deeply marked by the event. “I dreamed about it several times,” he slips. At school, two children had to have recourse to a psychologist, we learn at the town hall. To forget. Move on. Resume a normal life. Like a nightmare slowly dissipating. “I hope that the village will not remain marked by this,” says Chantal.
On October 23, the tornado that devastated the neighboring villages of Bihucourt and Hendecourt had miraculously spared Bullecourt. The inhabitants were far from imagining that a month later, another storm was going to fall.