Latest news with #Trémolat
The Sun
28-06-2025
- The Sun
Locals fear Brit mum's murder in French village was professional hit as children break silence on unsolved killing
FEARS are growing that Brit mum Karen Carter was killed in a professional hit - as the unsolved killing continues to stump police. Her children have now broken their silence for the first time since she was stabbed to death in a "frenzied attack" two months ago outside her home in France. 11 11 Police investigating her death in the sleepy village of Trémolat, Dordogne, said her brutal murder was "planned and exceptionally violent". Cops suspect that Karen's killer may have harboured a grudge against her, or taken issue with the secret affair she had struck up with local villager Jean-Francois Guerrier, 74 They also identified a love triangle including another local named Marie Laure Autefort - who was reportedly "madly in love" with Guerrier. Guerrier and Autefort were previously arrested by police and questioned - but both of them were released without charge. Karen had also been married to Alan Carter, 65, for 30 years, further complicating the love triangle. But the married couple had been estranged and Alan was living in South Africa at the time her death. Autefort's brother Philippe Monribot admitted his sister had fallen in love with Guerrier, whom she called "the tall one", but insisted she was innocent. He is convinced the murder was a "professional hit", and said that police were "wasting their time" by interrogating him for four hours last week, The Times reported. Karen was found by Guerrier dying from multiple stab wounds in her driveway at 10pm on April 29. She was a beloved member of the local community and a married mum-of-four. Moment Brit mum is seen dancing with secret lover months was stabbed to death Guerrier had followed Karen home at a discreet distance after hosting a wine-tasting at his Trémolat farmhouse - just a 10 minute drive from the Brit mum's property. He then found Karen on the floor by her car and desperately tried to save her - but it was too late. After prosecutors confirmed that Karen's affair was the focus of the investigation, her husband Alan said his shock was compounded with a sense of betrayal. Karen's daughter Liz, an engineering student in the US, said: "I keep thinking about what her last moments would have been like. "The colour in my life has washed away." She added that her mum's killer was clearly a "deeply disturbed individual who had nothing going for them". "They saw my mother's beautiful life and, for whatever reason, chose to extinguish her light," she said. Karen's other daughter Katy, 30, who lives in the UK, said her mum had been "so excited about her life in France and growing old in Trémolat". Meanwhile, her son from her first marriage Nick Sachs said of his mum's death: "It's a hole in our lives that we can't fill." 11 11 And his brother Jonathan, who works in Australia, said he felt "aimless" since his mum's murder and even prepared for the prospect that the killer would never be found. He said: "I've come to realise that there is a possibility that the culprit may never be identified and we as a family will need to learn and accept that." The mayor of Trémolat Éric Chassagne was one of the last people to see Karen alive, as he had also been at the small gathering at Guerrier's property. Chassagne, who has been mayor for 30 years, feared that suspicion was "weighing on the village" of around 600 residents. He suggested the killer might still be in town. He said: "The most probable [lines of inquiry] involve people we know. It's the most obvious." Since his release after questioning, Guerrier, originally from Paris, has kept a low profile. He previously spent some years working in England as an IT executive. The woman who had fallen in love with him, 69-year-old retired carer Autefort, has not been seen in Trémolat since her two days of questioning. Cops are said to have taken statements from over 200 people and scoured fields and woods near the Carter home for clues as well as the murder weapon. 11 11 11 Karen also reportedly told fellow ex-pat pal Beverley Needham she was sealing a divorce from Alan - just one day before her murder. Beverley told The Telegraph that, over dinner the night before the murder, she asked Karen: "Have you served the papers?", to which she replied: "Yes, I gave him the papers." The friend continued: '[Karen] told me the relationship was over and said: 'I'm done' [...] That was her words. She said: 'I'm done.'' Beverley, who was brokering the sale of a cottage to Karen, said the estranged couple saw each other only occasionally, but that the toll of the divorce seemed to weigh heavily on her friend. Alan was said to have denied that he and Karen were divorcing, but said his wife's secret romance with Guerrier left him with "a sense of betrayal". Karen was found in her driveway dying from eight injuries to her 'chest, groin, arm and leg'. An autopsy revealed the mum was killed "as she tried to defend herself from a frenzied attack". Another theory amongst the village is that an escaped inmate from a prison 7.5 miles away, which houses mentally ill patients, could have randomly ambushed Karen. The cold-blooded murder has rocked the tight-knit village community - who all appear dumbfounded. 11 Emma Rathbone, 45, said: 'She was absolutely lovely. She was at the centre of the village. Everybody knew her. "If you were new to the village she would be the first who would make you feel welcome. 'You can see how beautiful the village is. It's like heaven. You don't expect something like that to happen to somebody so lovely.' Charity worker Adrian Carter, who has had a house in the village for a decade, said: 'She was really, really lovely. She was bubbly and a friendly to everyone - both French and English and any other nationalities who were here. 'I was shocked, really really shocked. Genuinely, you would say it's safe. 'Knowing that someone has now been arrested make me feel a little bit safer. 'It's such a sleepy place. It's not like a Midsomer Murders sort of place.' Karen's husband Alan, who remains at the couple's home in East London, South Africa, expressed shock and surprise at revelations that his wife had "started a relationship" with another man. Karen and Alan had owned their holiday home in Trémolat for 15 years, splitting time between France and South Africa, where Alan still works. Speaking from their home in South Africa, Carter said he learned of his wife's death via a Facebook post read by a cousin who also lives in Trémolat. "She phoned me [...] to say she's sorry to tell me and that she thinks Karen has died. That was the first I heard about it," he said. "No one had got in touch with me at all to let me know what had happened. I found out through my cousin who happened to see it on a Facebook page." The former London Stock Exchange worker, 65, described her as "such a decent, lovely person", and told of the family's shock. He said his wife of 30 years was an outgoing, friendly person who "wouldn't hurt a fly", and said her death has been "traumatic" for his family. Karen had lived in Trémolat for more than a decade, where she ran two holiday rental homes. She volunteered at Village Café alongside Guerrier and Autefort, which now hangs a photograph of the late mum and wife while her killer remains at large.
Times
27-06-2025
- Times
Who killed our beautiful mum? Hunt for Karen Carter's murderer goes on
The long summer evenings of the Dordogne are in full swing. In Trémolat, music drifts down narrow streets from the terrace of the reopened Café Village. Life has returned to the village where, as the sun sets, holidaymakers and locals dance into the night. Inside the café, a photograph now hangs at the wood-panelled bar. Karen Carter, 65, volunteered there at the café before she was stabbed to death at her home nearby two months ago. Her killer is still at large, and the photo of the smiling Carter is the only hint that the café, festooned with lights and bunting, and the village, remain a focus of the murder hunt. Investigators have a working theory: that the killer harboured a personal grudge against Carter, a married mother with four adult children, or a problem with the relationship she had struck up with Jean-Francois Guerrier, with whom she helped to run the bar at Café Village. He and another volunteer, Marie-Laure Autefort, who made public her infatuation with Guerrier, were both arrested and released without charge. Today, as Trémolat moves uneasily towards its peak tourist season, Carter's adult children have spoken for the first time about their mother's murder, which police said was 'planned and exceptionally violent'. Guerrier, 74, found Carter dying from multiple stab wounds in her driveway at 10pm on April 29, after she had left his farmhouse on the edge of Trémolat where he had hosted a wine-tasting event. He had followed her at a discreet distance to spend the night at her converted barn. Guerrier tried to revive her as he called the emergency services, but she was beyond help. 'I keep thinking about what her last moments would have been like,' said Liz Carter, 29, an engineering student in the United States. 'The colour in my life has washed away'. She learnt of the death after a call from her father, Alan. From South Africa, he had to break the news to all four children — two daughters and two sons — scattered between Britain, the US and Australia. The family later reunited in Trémolat, where they had spent many holidays, to visit their property, which is now a crime scene, and hold a funeral. The prosecutor's confirmation that his wife's affair was the investigation's focus, Alan Carter said, compounded the shock with a sense of betrayal. The couple, married for 30 years and dual British and South African citizens, had spent years renovating Les Chouettes, an old cottage and barn that Karen ran as gîtes. The couple had disagreed about how to divide their time, with Karen keen to live in France permanently. Katy Carter, 30, who lives in Britain, said her mother had been 'so excited about her life in France and growing old in Trémolat'. After spending most of her life in South Africa worrying about crime, Karen Carter often spent months alone in Trémolat, leaving doors unlocked, her family said. Her murder was the most violent crime anyone can remember in the Périgord region. It is believed her killer lay in wait and lunged from the shadows as she got out of her car, stabbing her eight times from the front. The first blow, to the heart, was fatal, according to the post-mortem examination. Liz Carter imagines the killer 'was a deeply disturbed individual who had nothing going for them. They saw my mother's beautiful life and, for whatever reason, chose to extinguish her light'. Widespread coverage of the murder has concerned Éric Chassagne, Trémolat's mayor for 30 years. He feared it would put visitors off and keep the locals at home. Instead, the village is buzzing, even if the unsolved murder is 'causing suspicion to weigh on the village', with concerns that the killer is likely to be in their midst. More than 200 people are thought to have made statements to police, and multiple searches have been made in the fields and woods surrounding the Carter property for clues and the murder weapon. 'The most probable [lines of inquiry] involve people we know. It's the most obvious,' the mayor said. Chassagne was one of the last people to see Carter alive at the small gathering at Guerrier's home, to taste new wines that he and Carter had chosen to stock Café Village. The venue was set up in a vacant village shop at the end of the pandemic as an attempt to bring a social focus to Tremolat's jumble of old blue-collar families, such as Autefort's, the retired city professionals, including Guerrier, and expat holiday-home owners with their limited French. Organisers announced its 'indefinite' closure after the murder, and its revival feels too soon for some regulars who feel the merriment beneath Carter's portrait is disrespectful and premature, while her murder remains unsolved. The mayor, however, believes life should not be paused. 'I was in complete agreement with the reopening. It had to reopen eventually … Trémolat must get on with life and carry on welcoming people from everywhere,' Chassagne said. Guerrier, originally from Paris and who spent some years in England as an IT executive, has kept a low profile. Autefort, a 69-year-old retired carer, has not been seen in the village since her release after two days of police questioning. Her brother Philippe Monribot, who was a fireman for 42 years, was questioned by investigators for four hours last week, he told The Times. He has lived in Trémolat his whole life and said he had been asked by the gendarmes to show them spots where the killer might have dumped their weapon in the woods which surround the properties belonging to the Carters, him and his sister. 'They're wasting their time,' said Monribot, who is convinced the murder was a professional hit, though he understood why his sister, Autefort, fell under suspicion. She had been in love with Guerrier, whom she called 'the tall one', Monribot said, adding that Guerrier had once demanded she divorce her husband to be free, but then spurned her. A police source said they did not consider the crime to be a contract killing. Nick Sachs, Carter's son from her first marriage, who lives in London, said the family all struggled to imagine the future without her. 'It's a hole in our lives that we can't fill.' His brother, Jonathan, who works in construction in Australia, said he had felt 'aimless' since his mother's death and was prepared that the killer might never be caught. 'I've come to realise that there is a possibility that the culprit may never be identified and we as a family will need to learn and accept that,' he said.
Daily Mail
14-06-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Revealed: SECOND woman stalked and brutally attacked in idyllic French village where British expat was stabbed to death: Six weeks on from Karen Carter's murder, a sinister new development...
Yellow police tape still surrounds Karen Carter's honey-coloured stone cottage on the outskirts of Trémolat, a small village east of Bordeaux. It looks forlorn now, sags where once it was taut, and has faded slightly in the heat, just like the flowers left in tribute. Among them, a posy laid by her husband Alan. Opposite, a road sign warning 'DANGER' urges drivers to slow down to avoid cumbersome farm vehicles – though one might argue that a more present 'danger' in this slow-moving, rural idyll comes from a killer still at large.
Daily Mail
01-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The France expat dream that became a nightmare: British mother, 65, is seen dancing and smiling with her French lover in video captured just months before she was stabbed to death
This is the moment a British expat stabbed to death in France was seen smiling and dancing with her secret lover in a clip filmed just five months ago. Karen Carter throws an arm in the air to Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive' as she playfully bumps hips with businessman Jean-Francois Guerrier on a packed dance-floor. The care-free moment was recorded in December outside Café Village, a bar where Mrs Carter and Mr Guerrier worked closely together in the tranquil Dordogne hamlet of Trémolat. The footage was taken during a live music event hosted by the café every Wednesday, in which a British couple set up a fish and chip van right outside the bar. Mrs Carter, 65, a mother-of-four, was stabbed to death in a frenzied attack outside her converted farmhouse last Tuesday evening after returning from a wine tasting event. Locals believe the grisly murder to be a crime of passion and police have stated they believe the suspect may have held a 'grudge' about her new relationship with Mr Guerrier, a former managing director of Fujitsu Services who found her body. Her husband, Alan Carter, was expected to fly to France this afternoon from his home in East London, South Africa, having spoken of a 'betrayal' at his wife's dalliance with the 74-year-old. His wife had travelled to Trémolat, some 65 miles east of Bordeaux, by herself last month and had been spending more time alone in the French countryside, where she and her husband had three rental properties. On the night she died, Mrs Carter had enjoyed a wine-tasting event Mr Guerrier had hosted at his large, gated compound in the hills overlooking the village. She left some time around 10pm, driving home in her Dacia Duster. Mr Guerrier checked on her shortly afterwards and found her sprawled on her driveway by her car in a pool of blood. She had been stabbed eight times her chest, groin, arm and leg. Despite the best efforts of medics, she died at the scene from severe blood loss. A post-mortem examination revealed she most likely 'tried to defend herself from a frenzied attack'. Mr Guerrier was initially questioned but subsequently released by French authorities. Mr Carter, 65, said he had been unaware of his wife's love affair with Mr Guerrier and said it had been a betrayal. He told The Times that the police investigation had confirmed 'a relationship I did not want to believe, and that had been denied to me repeatedly by my wife'. He said confirmation of the affair had left him with 'a feeling of complete betrayal'. Mr Carter revealed he had challenged his wife about the amount of time she was spending with retired businessman, Mr Guerrier. He said there were tensions between the pair over where they should spend their later lives since purchasing their Trémolat home in 2009. Mrs Carter had become engrossed in village life and the pair grew more distant - spending most of their time on different continents. She worked closely with Mr Guerrier behind the bar at Café Village pouring drinks for villagers. Speaking to the newspaper, her husband Mr Carter added: 'It was so obvious that Jean-François had an affection for Karen, and I feel he took advantage of the time we were spending apart. 'I felt the Café Village attracted a lonely bunch of people who had nothing else to throw their lives into. I felt they were having a strong influence on Karen, and she really did not know that much about them.' Mr Carter was last with his wife three weeks ago, when she visited South Africa with Trémolat's over-50s women's football team. He last spoke to her on the morning of her death and only learnt about it the next afternoon from a cousin who had read a post on Café Village's Facebook page. Mr Carter will reunite with his four children for the small funeral he is now arranging in Trémolat. Mr Guerrier has been lying low since finding his lover's body and has been unavailable for comment. He was, up until a month ago, the chairman of the village committee which would meet regularly at the premises. He tendered his resignation to allow someone else to takeover the role. Speaking at his home, a female relative, who spoke with an English accent, said briefly: 'He doesn't want to say anything but he's fine.' The holiday gîte the Carters ran, a converted farmhouse and barn called Les Chouettes - or The Owls - sleeps 16 people and is on a road popular with British expats. It remains cordoned off by police tape with officers having searched surrounding woodland for a possible murder weapon. A 69-year-old woman, known to Ms Carter was arrested and her property in the village searched but she too was released without charge last Friday.
Daily Mail
31-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Cafe that may hold key to French murder of British woman who worked there 'with secret lover' reopens exactly one month after the killing
A village café that may hold the key to finding the killer of a British woman in south west France has reopened – exactly a month after the savage murder. Karen Carter, 65 and a married mother of four, was found dead outside her home in Trémolat, east of Bordeaux, following a night out with friends on April 29th. The Café Village, where she worked part time behind the bar along with an alleged secret lover, was immediately 'shut indefinitely'. 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, 74 – may have come to know her at the hugely popular social centre. Yet – despite the killer not being caught and locals fearing he or she may have 'strong connections' with the café – it was back in business last week. 'Regular opening' resumed on May 28th, according to management, with events including pop music concerts and quiz nights. Mr Guerrier, who was president of the community association which ran the Café Village, was arrested and questioned at length following the murder, before being released without charge. It was Mr Guerrier who found Ms Carter outside her home, covered with stab wounds, before failing to revive her. He confirmed Ms Carter had spent the night at a 'wine tasting evening' at his house, but failed to telephone him when she got home, and so he went to investigate. In December, Ms Carter was filming dancing with Mr Guerrier at the Café Village, to Gloria Gaynor's disco anthem, I Will Survive. In turn, Ms Carter's 65-year-old husband, Alan Carter, who spends most of his time in South Africa, said he was unaware of their relationship. He said he knew nothing about it until it was publicly announced by the French authorities, saying he had 'a feeling of complete betrayal.' Despite the enquiry into Ms Carter's death being upgraded to a full-blown murder enquiry earlier this month, there is a still no sign of the killer – or the murder weapon used. This has led prosecutors to believe that it 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. Despite searches in the area, and two arrests including of Mr Guerrier, no serious suspect has yet emerged. Bergerac prosecutors opened the initial investigation, without focusing on a single motive. They confirmed that Ms Carter suffered eight severe stab wounds, and said she could have died because of 'a grudge' against her and Mr Guerrier, motivated by their secret affair. Frustrated with the lack of progress, prosecutors announced in early May that a 'judicial investigation into murder' was being opened. This meant that an instructing judge in Périgueux had stronger powers to interview people, to request documents, and to liaise with overseas authorities. Ms Carter had British and South African nationality, and her husband 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 earlier this month. 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 has confirmed hosting a party at his converted farmhouse, close to the village, just before Ms Carter's death. She left the wind-tasting evening 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. Police also initially arrested a neighbour of Mrs Carter, 69-year-old Marie Laure Autefort, but released her when she was able to provide an alibi. Her brother, Philippe Monribot, said she was infatuated with Mr Guerrier – but he insisted she was not capable of killing Mrs Carter. 'My sister is innocent. She is devastated by what has happened,' said Mr Monribot. Ms Carter had lived in the Dordogne for more than a decade, and was a member of a women's over-50s football team called the Queens of Football (Reines du Foot) Joëlle Mayer, who worked part time with Ms Carter at the Café Village, said: 'She was a charming, relaxed person, happy to be alive, smiling, and loved by everyone here. 'The town has a very active community life, and she was part of it. She participated in all the activities of the community café.'
