his body was in the trunk of his burnt car

Strong gusts of wind are lifting the earth from the farm track leading to the house. In the garden, loose metal sheets are rattling with each gust, this Tuesday morning, September 17.

Nothing else moves, except the gendarmerie banners. Everything else has been frozen for two weeks. Since the arson attack that destroyed this old building nestled in the heart of the Deux-Sèvres countryside, very close to Secondigny. It was on the night of Sunday 1^er until Monday, September 2, 2024, at Retail, at La Naulière.

The occupant of the house, a forty-year-old man, was found dead the same night. But forty kilometers from his home, between Parthenay and Thouars, in Louin. The man was inside a burnt-out car, his own. According to our information, his body was in the trunk and not at the wheel.

Tracking down suspects

This macabre discovery led to the opening of a judicial investigation a week later by the criminal division of the Poitiers public prosecutor’s office. counts of murder and destruction by dangerous means .

An investigating judge is leading this investigation. With the aim of collecting as much evidence as possible and reconstructing the sequence of events that led to the murder of Léo Guillemain, 40 years old, alias “Little Léo” (because he has the same first and last name as his father).

This long and painstaking work is carried out by the gendarmes of the Poitiers research section. The latter have powerful investigative means, such as the analysis of telephone lines, allowing them to trace the perpetrators of the crime.

Everything suggests that there are at least two of them: the one who drove the victim’s car from Retail to abandon it in Louin to make it disappear. And the one who drove the probable second vehicle, necessary to leave Louin after this nocturnal and murderous trip.

The hypothesis of a settling of scores?

For two weeks, in particular thanks to their hearings, investigators have also been trying to discover and verify all the possible reasons for this murder: romantic jealousy? Settling of scores following a debt? No leads have been officially confirmed for the moment.

In any case, the author(s) clearly wanted to do battle with Léo Guillemain, described as a discreet resident of Retail for many years. Because one does not go by chance to the place called La Naulière, a tiny hamlet off-center from the town where only the farmers and the owners of a gîte liven up the place a little.

Furthermore, according to our information, local residents have heard suspicious noises Sunday 1^er September at the end of the day. Shortly before the fire broke out. When the firefighters arrived on site, they were also struck by the presence of a great deal of disorder inside the house.