A Christmas drama. On Monday, the lifeless bodies of a 35-year-old woman and her four children were discovered by police in an apartment in Meaux (Seine-et-Marne). The husband, a 33-year-old man, is suspected of having killed his family. On the run, he was found and arrested in Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis) on Tuesday morning. 20 minutes takes stock of the investigation.
What happened ?
On Christmas Day, a neighbor is worried about the silence of a family of four children and a couple, who no longer give any news. After dialing the mother’s number, she alerts the police. Around 9 p.m., the police discovered in an apartment in Meaux the lifeless bodies of a 35-year-old woman and her four children, aged nine months, 4 years, 7 years and 10 years. All five members of the family were stabbed to death. “The apartment showed no trace of a break-in and the father of the family was absent,” explained Meaux public prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier. An investigation into “intentional homicide of minors aged 15 and intentional homicide by spouse” has been opened and is entrusted to the regional judicial police directorate of Versailles.
The father, the only survivor, was not in the apartment when the police arrived. He became the main suspect in the case and was arrested Tuesday morning, while he was on the run in Sevran. The 33-year-old man was taken into custody.
What do we know about the circumstances of the murders?
The Meaux public prosecutor revealed more elements during a press conference Tuesday morning. The mother and two older daughters were victims of “a very large number of stab wounds”, while the 4-year-old boy and the nine-month-old baby had no visible wounds.
For the latter, Jean-Baptiste Bladier mentions a death by “suffocation” or “drowning”, while the autopsies will be held on Wednesday. “Pools and pools of blood” were discovered by the police when they entered this “very violent” crime scene, the prosecutor said.
What is the profile of the father, the main suspect?
Arrested this Tuesday morning, the 33-year-old man was known to the police. In 2019, he attacked his wife with a knife, stabbing her in the shoulder blade. The procedure was dismissed on the grounds of deficient mental state, said the public prosecutor.
An expert report attested to the existence of the abolition of discernment in the accused, a 33-year-old man of French nationality, monitored since 2017 for depressive and psychotic disorders. The suspect is hospitalized in an establishment in Seine-Saint-Denis, because he was injured during his escape. He is in police custody but has not yet been questioned. A judicial investigation “for intentional homicide of minors under 15 years of age and intentional homicide by a spouse”, the penalty incurred is life imprisonment, said the prosecutor.