How was Hubert Caouissin able to accomplish such murderous madness? This is what the Loire-Atlantique Assize Court will have to resolve from this Tuesday. The former coppersmith of the Brest arsenal will indeed have to answer for the murders of the husbands Pascal and Brigitte Troadec and their two children, Sébastien and Charlotte, on February 17, 2017 in Orvault near Nantes, followed by the destruction of the bodies. If the facts are not really contested, several gray areas remain at the end of a long investigation. Point.
Did Hubert Caouissin premeditate his gesture?
If the accused is not prosecuted for murder, it is because the premeditation was not accepted by the investigating judges. “This decision confirms us in the version given by Hubert Caouissin. He never intended to kill this family before February 17, ”appreciates Thierry Fillion, lawyer for the fifty-year-old. Caouissin says it was the outbreak of a fight that led to the crimes. Still, the civil parties will undoubtedly bring this subject back to debate. The trip to the Troadec’s home nine days before the murders, the make-up of the license plates, the numerous searches carried out on the Internet, or the absence of the supposed murder weapon (a crowbar) are all elements disturbing. “Hubert Caouissin confessed but there is no one to contradict his words, notes Jean-Michel Laurence, co-author of the book Secrets of the Troadec affair. In the absence of an autopsy of the bodies, the real cause of each death could not be established. Only morpho-analysis expertise will allow you to confirm or refute your scenario. “
Was Hubert Caouissin in his head?
Two colleges of psychiatric experts have looked into the issue of the accused’s mental health. Both concluded with a “delusional paranoia” which led to an “impairment of discernment” at the time of the facts. This paranoia would be fueled by a feeling of “family spoliation” orchestrated by Pascal Troadec and even a feeling of “danger of death” targeting his son and his partner. Two expert psychologists also describe an “intellectual efficiency hampered by impaired judgment”. “He is a complex personality,” confirms Thierry Fillion, lawyer for the accused. He’s had pretty changeable moods for four and a half years. As the trial approaches, he seems voluntary. I hope he will resist the pressure. “Insisting on the manipulative character of the accused, the lawyer for the civil parties, Cécile de Oliveira, promises that the alteration of discernment constitutes” a point which will be strongly debated before the Assize Court “. “Hubert Caouissin is a man who both controls his speech” and “delivers relatively different versions,” she emphasizes. The stakes are high. “If this alteration of discernment is retained and taken into account by the jurors, Hubert Caouissin could then avoid a sentence of life imprisonment”, recalls Béatrice Fonteneau, co-author of the book Secrets of the Troadec affair.
Is the motive for crimes a treasure?
This is one of the curiosities of the case. Hubert Caouissin and Lydie Troadec were angry with the victims because of a story of gold coins and bars. “Hubert Caouissin estimated that Pascal Troadec had stolen a treasure of gold coins found by his father a few years earlier. He had noticed that Pascal and Brigitte Troadec had started to buy cars, to do work, to travel ”, explains the instruction. The subject of the conflict was known within the family. Renée, the mother of Lydie and Pascal, was herself convinced that this treasure had existed, without ever having seen it. And historians have confirmed that a shipment of around 50 kg of gold had indeed disappeared in 1940 in the port of Brest. But, during the investigation, “no element made it possible to demonstrate the reality of the existence of the gold previously stolen by Pascal Troadec, nor a significant improvement in their lifestyle”, concluded the investigating judges. The civil parties are convinced that this treasure is an invention.
What was the exact role of Lydie Troadec?
The companion of Hubert Caouissin and sister of Pascal Troadec is not prosecuted for complicity, but for “concealment of corpses” and “modification of the scene of a crime”. For this, she faces three years in prison. The investigations “did not make it possible to demonstrate with certainty that Lydie entered the home of the Troadecs in Orvault”, but it is certain that she helped transport vehicles, that she bought household equipment, or that ‘she threw the murder weapon off a bridge. Could she have done more? If they do not find any mental anomaly in Lydie Troadec, the expert psychologists called upon during the instruction put forward a “poorly structured personality”, a “dependence on his companion” and a “” adhesion without distance to his delirium.