A partly charred body was found in a garden in the town of Coupiac, located in southern Aveyron, about 60 kilometers from Rodez. The body is that of a 60-year-old man who disappeared on February 5. A woman had called the gendarmes of Saint-Cernin-sur-Rance that day, informing them that she had no more news of her ex-husband. On February 8, the missing person’s car was found in Camarès. That same day, several members of his family had received text messages, sent from his phone. But in a style of writing that did not suit him.
“Two people who had been seen using [son] vehicle [ont été] identified and placed in police custody, explained the public prosecutor of Montpellier, Fabrice Belargent. A search was carried out at their home. During this multiple objects belonging to the disappeared were discovered. »
Three people in custody
During police custody, one of the suspects allegedly confessed to investigators that he had a dispute with the victim and killed her unintentionally by knocking him to the ground. A third person would have taken care of making the body disappear by incinerating it. Identified, she was also taken into custody. Still, the versions of the three suspects diverge as to the circumstances that led to the death of the victim. “It is at this stage of the investigation impossible to specify the links that existed between the disappeared person and the three people placed in police custody, nor the exact circumstances in which this person was killed”, specified the prosecutor of the Republic.
The three defendants, two men and a woman, were presented to the Montpellier prosecutor’s office on February 11 and indicted for “kidnapping sequestration followed by death”, on the one hand, and “concealment of the corpse of a victim of homicide or violence resulting in death”, on the other hand. All three were remanded in custody.