Woman slaughtered in Besançon: confessed, the husband indicted for intentional homicide

Confessions. A 61-year-old man, who admitted to having killed his wife with multiple stab wounds, slitting her throat, at the end of December in Besançon, was indicted and imprisoned for “voluntary spousal homicide”, said this Friday the prosecutor of Besançon, Etienne Manteaux.

The sexagenarian, who had deliberately injured himself after the murder of his wife, was hospitalized for a long time. His state of health finally allowed the judge to hear him on Thursday. He was remanded in custody at the Lyon prison hospital, the prosecutor said at a press conference.

On December 29, the police were informed by a neighbor of a violent altercation at the home of a couple in Besançon. The police arrive two minutes later and see a woman being beaten by a man on a balcony. “The time to go upstairs and break down the door, Madame had several wounds on her neck, which opened her throat, and Monsieur injured himself by kicking himself”, according to the prosecutor.

The 55-year-old victim died shortly after law enforcement arrived at the apartment. Her husband, whose vital prognosis was for a time, was hospitalized with injuries to his neck, wrists and stomach. “He explains that the blows received are both linked to his partner’s defensive gestures with a knife and to blows he gave himself”, notes the prosecutor.

He recounted that “on the evening of the events, when he had been living with his wife for 40 years, she allegedly told him suddenly that she was leaving him”, reported the magistrate. “I reacted very badly, it was misunderstanding. It went like a ball and I realized the big bullshit”, said the sexagenarian to the investigators. The couple, parent of a child, was not known to the police and judicial authorities before the facts.

The feminist collective against sexist and sexual violence #NousToutes counted 113 feminicides in 2021. That of Besançon was identified by the organization.

“A 50-year-old woman had her throat cut by her husband. It’s the 113th feminicide of the year”, had tweeted the collective the day after the tragedy. As often, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron had been arrested on social networks. “It’s not a holiday season for everyone”, had written #NousToutes to the address of the Head of State.