She had just dropped off one of her four children at daycare. Thursday August 31, 2023, a policewoman in her forties was killed in the middle of the street in the village of La-Croix-de-La-Rochette, in Savoie, when she was accompanied by her other 3-year-old son. Very quickly, the main suspect identified is her ex-husband and father of two of her children, who had been harassing her for years and had already made threats against her. After her divorce in 2021, she left the Côte d’Azur for Savoie and filed a complaint against her ex-spouse for non-payment of child support. She had also confided in her colleagues about the persistent harassment exerted by her ex-husband, since she had settled in the region with her new companion. Wanted by the police on Thursday morning, the 61-year-old man was finally arrested around ten o’clock on Friday, September 1, 2023, in Arvillard, Savoie, according to information from the Parisian. He tried to flee before being caught by the police, in the parking lot of a Buddhist temple in the region, said the prosecutor of Chambéry, Pierre-Yves Michau.
A man already known for acts of violence
According to the Chambéry prosecutor, quoted by Morning Vosgesthe man attacked the victim with a “ten violent blows, using a weapon which could be of the machete type”. The victim had filed a complaint twice against her ex-husband since 2017. The Chambéry prosecution indicated that “in the context of the separation, he was notably sentenced on November 10, 2020 by the Nice Criminal Court for non-compliance with a protection order issued for the benefit of the victim by the family court judge”. According to information from Dauphine Liberethe 61-year-old man had occupied a place in a campsite near the village for two days. He left early in the morning and returned late at night, slept in his car and did not pay for his location, according to the regional daily. If these facts are confirmed, they could accredit the thesis of the premeditation of the murder, which would thus be requalified as assassination. But for now, the main suspect remains presumed innocent pending a court decision.
>> “3919”, “Violence Femmes Info”, is the national reference number for women victims of violence (domestic, sexual, psychological, forced marriages, sexual mutilation, harassment…). It’s free and anonymous.