It was the daughter of this couple of three children who, on returning from college near Besançon, found the door of the family home closed and gave the alert. Upon entering the accommodation, the emergency services and the gendarmes discovered the couple dead, shot and killed, sitting side by side on the sofa in the living room, in front of the television on.
A probable assassination of a spouse followed by a suicide tied against the background of a breakup, the fifth feminicide in a year in the Besançon court sector, public prosecutor Etienne Manteaux announced on Wednesday.
A gesture probably “premeditated”
The woman, a 43-year-old childminder, mother of a fourth child from a previous union, had a gunshot wound to the arm and another, “immediately” fatal, to the temple. Her husband, 48 years old and employed in the construction industry, armed with a shotgun, was also fatally shot in the head, according to prosecutor Etienne Manteaux. “The strong hypothesis is that it is a homicide” of the spouse on his companion followed by suicide, according to the prosecutor. After shooting her, probably by surprise, “the man probably turned the gun on himself”. The latter was keeping a 21-month-old baby at the time of the tragedy. The child, found safe and sound in a room by the emergency services, was not frightened and a priori saw nothing.
The man seems to have premeditated his gesture, continued the magistrate. He left “writings, affixed to the refrigerator”, one of which indicates: “I’m going to bust his face around 3 p.m.”. According to the medical examiner, the deaths occurred between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. A breakup not accepted by the spouse seems to be at the origin of the tragedy: “the same morning, the lady had brought the breakup of Pacs to the town hall” of the couple , according to the prosecutor.
According to the latest figures from the Ministry of the Interior, 122 women were victims of femicide in 2021, a number up 20% compared to 2020.