the essential
Marie-France D., suspected of murder of a vulnerable person, requests her release. A man she seemed close to was found dead in 2014 in a pool of blood. The first investigation was unsuccessful. The gendarmes took over the case several years later, and the courts are now convinced that they did the deed.
Is Marie-France D. an unscrupulous predator or a mythomaniac scammer falling under the caudine forks of blind justice? This 71-year-old woman was indicted in May 2023 for murder of a vulnerable person. In this case an alcoholic, Jérôme Pujol, aged 54 in 2014, when he was found in a pool of blood at his home in Albigensian.
A terrible scene
9:15 a.m. on June 2, 2014. Even for seasoned investigators, the scene is difficult to bear when the police enter 58 chemin Eugène Mancel. The lifeless body of Jérôme Pujol was discovered collapsed, his chin resting on his bedside table. A long red mark stains the wall. His bed is soaked in blood. The apartment is dotted with carmine droplets. The face of the deceased bears traces of extreme violence: broken cheekbones, liver cut in two, six fractured ribs, the expert will mention injuries compatible with a fall of 10 meters. If an aggressor hits the victim, it is with an outburst beyond measure.
Pujol is sick, an alcoholic. Marie-France D., authoritarian and manipulative, falsely presents herself as a doctor. She says she takes care of the victim. However, those around Pujol report repeated bruises since their meeting. When questioned, however, she will not – initially – be worried. The Albigensian investigation into the causes of death will conclude that it was an accident or an undetermined natural cause.
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The police start everything from scratch
Not in the opinion of the victim's daughters, especially since in 2014 alone, Marie-France amassed 6,000 euros belonging to the deceased; “she was pumping his money” confirms a source close to the investigation. Taking up the case, Toulouse judge Fabrice Rives mobilizes the gendarmerie research section to deepen the investigations. A new expertise reveals a death caused by flat blows, definitively excluding the accidental hypothesis. The investigators will become convinced that Marie-France, in debt and already convicted of breach of trust or fraud, killed the fifty-year-old to capture his money.
The mythomaniac changed her version multiple times, “including during the same hearing” affirms the Albi prosecutor's office. She lied to Pujol's entourage, was the only one with duplicate keys and had a suspicious attitude when discovering the body. Moreover, at the time of the crime, his phone was turned off. Arrested in May 2023 almost 10 years after the events in Eu (Seine-Maritime), Marie-France finally admitted to having pushed Pujol, before retracting. “Confessions under pressure” assert today his lawyers Mes Jacques Lévy and Ouajdi Amri.
Ideal culprit?
Before the Investigative Chamber of the Toulouse Court of Appeal, Wednesday November 13, the accused proclaims his innocence: “I did nothing, I took care of him when no one was doing it” sobbed – she said. Jacques Lévy loses his temper: “We want to put the blame on her, make her say what we want her to say, because 10 years ago the justice system was incapable of finding the culprit, I didn't not afraid to go to the Assize Court against such an empty file.” The investigating chamber renders its decision on November 19 on his request for release. The prosecution, for its part, requested the referral of the septuagenarian to the Tarn Assize Court.
