A new drama against the backdrop of “paranoia”of ” substance addiction “ and of “prostitution”. The Bayonne prosecutor announced this Sunday, May 5, 2024 the opening of a judicial investigation for “assassination”, after the hammer murder of a 33-year-old woman in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Here is what we know about the investigation surrounding this crime described as “drama of savagery” by the Bayonne prosecutor.
Victim found in hotel room
The body of the victim, of French nationality and German origin, was discovered on Friday May 3 in a hotel room, where the couple had been staying for two nights. According to the prosecutor, the victim was lying naked on the bed, on his stomach, with his wrists and ankles tied by a torn pillowcase. A hammer was found at the scene.
An autopsy of the victim’s body, which was “fairly isolated on the national territory” will take place this Monday to determine a possible rape, specifies the Bayonne prosecutor.
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His companion implicated for “assassination”
His companion, a 37-year-old Frenchman of Algerian origin, was quickly taken into police custody for murder. He will be presented this Sunday to an investigating judge with a view to indicting him for “assassination” and the prosecution will request his placement in pre-trial detention, said prosecutor Jérôme Bourrier.
During his hearings, the main suspect, who has 19 entries on his criminal record, reported a “freaking out” : “he would have heard a monster laughing” and would have hit with his hammer “until this monster noise stops”, relates Jérôme Bourrier. A psychiatric assessment of the accused will also be carried out.
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A couple caught in “a fatal spiral”
According to Jérôme Bourrier, this couple who had been dating since 2013 was caught in “a fatal spiral”, “tinged with paranoia”. Since January 2024, he has been living from hotel to hotel, feeling “pursued, hunted”sometimes by a “former client of the victim”sometimes by “Belgian and Dutch mafia”. “This couple was not known to the police for acts of domestic violence”however, underlines the magistrate.
The victim presented himself for the first time in January at the Saint-Jean-de-Luz police station with a head wound, mentioning an ax blow from an unknown person before speaking of a suicide attempt. His companion, placed in police custody, had given a version ” compatible “ and this first procedure was dismissed, in “lack of sufficient charges”.
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A previous 5-story fall that raises questions
In mid-April, the victim fell from the 5th floor of a hotel in nearby Ciboure. Her vital prognosis was compromised and she had to be hospitalized. Here again, placed in police custody for “attempted homicide”, his companion had been left free, notably after his partner exonerated him from “categorical manner”.
Finally, two days before his death, the victim had “deliberately left the hospital without notifying the staff”, to join his partner and settle into this hotel in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. On average over recent years, a feminicide occurs every three days in France. According to the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti, there were 94 in 2023, compared to 118 in 2022.
