The parents of Jérôme Gaillard, who confessed to the murder of his wife Magali Blandin in 2021 near Rennes before killing himself in prison, committed suicide before they could be tried, we learned on Tuesday from of their lawyers. Monique and Jean Gaillard, respectively aged 73 and 76, were indicted for alleged complicity with their son in this feminicide.
“Monique and Jean Gaillard had made the choice to return the truth to this family drama and have borne the weight of the responsibility since the suicide of their son Jérôme alone (…) They will no longer have been able to live , again” and “left together”, write their respective lawyers, Gwendoline Tenier and Olivier Pacheu, in a press release sent to AFP.
Placed in pre-trial detention, the couple had been released three weeks after the suicide of their son who hanged himself on the night of October 31 to November 1, 2021 at the Vézin-le-Coquet prison, near Rennes.
Under judicial supervision, the septuagenarians then settled in a house in La Turballe (Loire-Atlantique) where their bodies were discovered on Tuesday by the gendarmes, according to Ouest-France which revealed the information. According to the daily, Monique and Jean Gaillard would have hanged themselves after having sent a letter to the parents of Magali Blandin, explaining to them that they were going to put an end to their days. It was after receiving this letter that the parents of the victim informed the gendarmerie.
Jérôme Gaillard admitted to having killed his wife, a 42-year-old specialized educator who had left him a few months earlier, with a baseball bat.
Georgian killers and blackmail
Magali Blandin’s body was found in March 2021 in a wood, a few kilometers from the husband’s home, more than a month after his disappearance. He had been located on the indication of the husband who had confessed to having killed her, against the backdrop of an incredible “criminal plot” involving Georgian killers.
The couple, who were in the process of divorcing, had four children aged 4, 7, 12 and 14 at the time. Magali Blandin had left her husband in September 2020. The parents of Jérôme Gaillard, retired farmers with no criminal record, had admitted having helped their last son in his criminal project.
They had explained that they had been devastated by the suicide, ten years earlier, of their other son who was also in the process of divorce. Monique Gaillard had declared having paid money to her son to help him financially, knowing that this sum could be used to carry out this criminal project by hiring the services of killers.
As for the father, he had notably provided an alibi for his son. In another part of the case, three Georgians, including a woman, alleged authors of an attempt to blackmail Jérôme Gaillard, were also indicted for attempted extortion in an organized gang.
They had a recording in which the husband declared his intention to kill his wife. Jérôme Gaillard had given 20,000 euros to the Georgians, who “cheated” him, before “acting alone” for his crime, the Rennes prosecutor had indicated.