Body of young woman found close to where British expat was murdered in rural France

Independent

3 days ago

The dead body of a young woman has been found close to the spot where a British woman was murdered in a frenzied knife attack in rural France.
Floriane Roux, 31, was reported missing exactly a week ago, before her body was uncovered by a police dog on Monday.
It was hidden in thick undergrowth in the village of Paunat, in the Dordogne department, east of Bordeaux.
This is less than five miles from Trémolot, where Karen Carter, 65 and a mother of four, was stabbed repeatedly before succumbing to her wounds outside her home on 29 April.
The British-South African national had spent a night out with friends, before dying next to her car.
Florian Roux, who was French, had also been planning a night out with friends, before her body was found close to her Vauxhall Corsa.
Both deaths are now being investigated by local prosecutors, supported by judicial police and gendarmes.
An investigating source said on Wednesday: 'The body of Floriane Roux was found on Monday, at 4pm. It was in a small shelter, hidden by tall grass and plants and not far from her vehicle, next to the Dordogne River.'
The body was found by a dog, who was one of seven involved in a search organised by gendarmes from Bergerac, said the source.
A doctor pronounced Ms Roux dead at the scene, before police removed her body. Neither the circumstances nor cause of Ms Roux's death are yet known, and no theory – including the possibility of suicide – is being ruled out, said the source.
According to her her family, Floriane Roux was supposed to meet a friend for the evening on July 23, but the friend claims not to have seen her.
An investigation was opened last week by the Bergerac prosecutor's office into a 'disturbing disappearance.'
Those questioned by police included Ms Roux's boyfriend, whom she lived with in Montanceix, near Saint-Astier.
Ms Carter had attended a wine tasting hosted by Jean-François Guerrier, her 75-year-old lover, in the hours before her death.
Both Mr Guerrier and Marie-Laure Autefort, another Trémolat resident said to have been passionately in love with him, were originally arrested, but then released without charge.
Ms Carter left the party at 10pm, and had promised to phone Mr Guerrier when she got home. Concerned when he heard nothing, Mr Guerrier, a former managing director of Fujitsu Services who worked in Britain at one point, drove to check on her, and found her body sprawled on the driveway of the property she ran as a rental business.
Despite attempts to save her, Ms Carter died from severe blood loss, after being stabbed in the chest, groin, arm and leg, according to an autopsy.
Investigators leading the investigation feared that someone who held a grudge against Ms Carter – or 'the new couple' she was forming with Jean-François Guerrier – may have killed her.
Prosecutors believe the murder was a meticulously planned crime, carried out by someone who knew Ms Carter.
He or she lay in wait, they believe, and took care to avoid leaving forensic evidence, before using 'unspeakable violence' against the defenceless Ms Carter, according an investigating source.
'It certainly could have been someone who knew the victim from the Café Village, or a contract killer acting on their behalf,' the source added.
Ms Carter had British and South African nationality, and her husband, Alan Carter, was at their home in East London, South Africa, at the time of the killing.
He arrived in Trémolat soon afterwards, and visited the scene of the suspected murder, before organising his wife's funeral, which took place in Bergerac in early July.
Mr Guerrier has meanwhile declined to speak at length, saying: 'Karen was a lovely lady, but I can't answer any more questions at the moment.'
He confirmed hosting a party at his converted farmhouse, close to the village, just before Ms Carter's death.