A mother and her three children were found dead this morning in southwestern France, after the suicide of the woman's partner who "confessed" his crime in the note he left.
The perpetrator of the quadruple murder, a 46-year-old butcher, seems to have had difficulty managing his separation from the 44-year-old, prosecutor Alex Peren explained in a press conference.
The tragedy was revealed at 7 in the morning, when the perpetrator jumped on the tracks of a train in Valence. "There was no doubt it was suicide, the driver saw him being thrown on the railway line," Peren explained.
Shortly afterwards, police officers rushed to the scene and found a notebook in his car. There they read with horror his "testament" which contained the confession: "I killed my son, 5,5 years old, my partner and her two children, 12 and 13 years old". The 46-year-old had also written down the address of the family in Beaumont-le-Valence, a community of about 3.600 inhabitants.
Police rushed to the house. The body of the woman who had apparently been attacked with a knife was found in the living room on the ground floor. Upstairs were found dead all three children, all in their beds, in their pajamas. Authorities believe the crime was committed late Tuesday night or early this morning, while the children were sleeping.
The 46-year-old seems to have been "afraid that he would lose his son" due to his separation from his partner, the prosecutor explained. In the mid-90s he was sentenced to 3,5 years in prison for "armed violence" but has since had no other dealings with the law.
Source: RES - EIA