Thursday morning, a 42-year-old woman was killed with a machete in the middle of the street in a village in Savoie. The main suspect, her ex-husband, has just been arrested. 20 minutes takes stock of this 90th feminicide since the beginning of 2023, according to figures from the collective We All*.
What happened Thursday, in Savoie?
Thursday, around 9 a.m., a 42-year-old woman, a police officer by profession but who was not on duty at the time of the events, was killed in La Croix-de-la-Rochette, in Savoie, where she lived. She had just dropped off one of her children at the crèche in the village of 380 inhabitants and was walking home, accompanied by her other 3-year-old son. A man, suspected of being his ex-companion, then gave him “ten violent blows, using a weapon which could be of the machete type”, according to the public prosecutor of Chambéry, Pierre-Yves Michau . Despite the intervention of the emergency services, the victim died as a result of his injuries. The autopsy will take place Friday morning at the forensic institute of Grenoble.
The children were taken care of under the protocol for the protection of minors and a medico-psychological emergency cell was opened at the town hall. An investigation for “assassination” was opened, and entrusted to the research brigade and the research section of the Chambéry gendarmerie.
Who is the prime suspect?
Wanted for more than twenty-four hours, the former husband of the policewoman, and main suspect in this assassination, was arrested by gendarmes from the Psig (surveillance and intervention platoon of the gendarmerie) as part of a research device piloted by the GIGN, at 10:10 this Friday morning. He was arrested in Arvillard, a town near La Croix-de-la-Rochette.
The individual was apprehended “without difficulty”, in his vehicle which had been spotted the day before in the parking lot of a Buddhist meditation center, said the prosecution. He was taken into custody at the Chambery research section. According to the information progress, the man had been sleeping for two days in a car, in a parking lot, next to a campsite 3 km from the village where the feminicide took place, which would mean that the murder was “probably committed with premeditation”. According to Fabrice Galatioto, national secretary of the southeastern zone of the SGP Police Unit union, the suspect was known to the police for a history of “violence on people, harassment and threats”.
What do we know about this divorced couple since 2021?
The couple, married and then divorced in 2021, had two children. After having lived and worked in Nice, the official had asked for her transfer to Chambéry and had arrived in Savoie the same year as the divorce. In a press release, the public prosecutor of Chambéry, Pierre-Yves Michau, indicated that, “in the context of the separation, [l’ex-mari] was sentenced on November 10, 2020 by the Nice Criminal Court for non-compliance with a protection order issued for the benefit of the victim by the family court judge”.
Before adding: “Even if the relations between the former spouses had remained tense, no other legal proceedings were in progress in the department of Savoie on the complaint of the victim for violence, harassment or any other offense, against the mistress. in question. The victim had, however, filed a complaint for “non-payment of alimony” towards her ex-husband.