The young woman suspected of the murder of her next-door neighbor, a 61-year-old man, was indicted for murder and placed in pre-trial detention, the Béziers public prosecutor's office said on Monday, in Hérault.
“Giving successive versions, she confusedly affirmed that it was an accident which occurred during an altercation between her and the deceased regarding the behavior he allegedly had towards her daughter” , detailed Béziers prosecutor Raphaël Balland. “According to her, her neighbor then physically attacked her while holding a kitchen knife with which he ultimately got himself involved in the fight,” said the prosecutor.
While in police custody, the young woman, who was arrested Saturday evening in the street, near the building, covered in blood and accompanied by her six-year-old daughter, denied having intentionally killed her neighbor.
Aged 22, the mother was sentenced last October to a 15-month suspended prison sentence for fleeing to Spain with her daughter, between September 2021 and May 2023 when the child had been placed.
On Saturday evening, the 61-year-old man was found with a stab wound to the carotid artery in his apartment. A lot of blood covered the stairwell of the building as well as the apartment of his next-door neighbor.
“The investigations, which will take several months, are continuing under the authority of the investigating magistrate in order to determine more precisely the course of the facts and the circumstances of their commission,” added the public prosecutor.
