A 69-year-old woman suffocated in Vendée, her drunken companion denounces himself in the North

A 69-year-old woman died of strangulation and suffocation in Luçon in Vendée. A crime for which his companion, a 61-year-old man, reported himself 600 km from the scene to the Cambrai hospital in the North. Drunk, this man shows up at the hospital and denounces his crime.

The police are notified, the Vendée gendarmes are alerted. They found the lifeless body of the 69-year-old woman at her home, in a narrow street in the city center. When they entered the premises, the gendarmes noticed that the victim was living “in great precariousness”, mayor Dominique Bonnin told West France.

An argument within the couple

Immediately placed in police custody in Cambrai, the sixty-year-old admitted to having “strangled and suffocated his partner on January 16, following an argument”, indicates the public prosecutor of La Roche-sur-Yon Sarah Huet in a press release. The man's custody was extended. An investigation into spousal murder was opened by the La Roche-sur-Yon public prosecutor's office.

In Luçon, the municipality explains that it was not aware of the victim's situation. “The couple lived withdrawn into themselves,” adds the mayor in West France.

In 2023, 96 women were victims of marital femicide in France, a figure down 19% compared to 2022, according to the latest report from the Ministry of the Interior published at the end of November.