“The first conclusions” of the autopsy performed on the body of a 40-year-old woman, discovered dead on Monday north of Périgueux (Dordogne), “accredit the hypothesis of a spousal homicide followed by the suicide of the author “, announced Wednesday the prosecution.
“The death appears to be the result of significant violence exerted by a third party on the upper and lower body, including at least multiple blows with the fists and feet”, detailed the public prosecutor of Périgueux Solène Belaouar in a press release Wednesday evening.
Monday around 8:00 a.m., a 51-year-old man was found hanged at his workplace in the town of Coulouniex-Chamiers. It was while going to check her home in Champcevinel, a village of 2,800 inhabitants 9 km away, that the body of the forties had been discovered by the investigators.
“Regular alcohol consumption of the couple”
According to the prosecution, the man and the woman, mother of two children, including a minor, “had a good relationship as a couple at the time of their death (…) interspersed with several separations and especially a certain number of episodes of violence, against a background of regular alcoholism of the couple”.
The man had been sentenced to six months in prison suspended in 2014, then to 12 months in prison, including 10 months suspended in 2018, for “acts of domestic violence committed on the same victim, his companion who died on Monday” , added Parquet.
The two separate investigations initially opened, one for intentional homicide concerning the woman, the other to find the causes of death concerning the man, were joined into one entrusted to the gendarmerie research brigade. from Perigueux.