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Laure Zacchello, a 43-year-old mother, has been missing for over a week in the Basque Country. Her husband, a teacher and former sports shooter, is under investigation for “spousal homicide”.
It’s been over a week since she was last seen: Laure Zacchello, a 43-year-old mother, has been missing since Friday morning, June 21. The forty-year-old mother of three was last seen in the village of Urrugne in the Basque Country. Her partner, suspected of staging an attack and killing the forty-year-old, is under investigation for voluntary manslaughter. La Dépêche du Midi takes stock of the investigation.
What do we know about Laure Zacchello?
Laure Zacchello is originally from Landes. This trained nurse is the mother of three children, aged 5, 7 and 9. In 2020, she underwent a professional reconversion in the field of “psychogenealogy”. The mother opened her own practice, where she works as a therapist, in an industrial zone located near Urrugne. It was in this village of nearly 10,000 inhabitants, located not far from Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), that she was last seen.
In a call for witnesses launched by the national police, it is specified that the forty-year-old was in fact seen in this town at 8:30 a.m., last Friday June 21. Investigators are looking for information and testimonies on what happened in Urrugne between 8:30 a.m. and 8:50 p.m.
What do we know about the disappearance of the mother?
In this case, the Bayonne prosecutor’s office does not exclude any hypothesis, but states that “serious and consistent evidence suggests that Laure Zacchello is possibly dead, possibly the victim of voluntary homicide by her partner”, explains Jérôme Bourrier, public prosecutor, during a press conference organized this Thursday, June 27. Investigators are indeed questioning this famous day of Friday, June 21.
That day, Laure Zacchelo’s three children, whom she had with the alleged murderer, were being looked after by their grandparents. Their father wanted to enjoy an evening with friends at the music festival. In the afternoon, the suspect’s sister tried to contact her brother by telephone. Without hearing from him, she decided to go to her brother’s home: that’s where she saw the man “lying on the ground, outside the house, on his stomach”. The man was injured in the head and a concrete block was lying next to his body. He was finally evacuated to the hospital in Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
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The investigators themselves do not exclude the hypothesis of staging: “The accused has injuries behind the head without extreme gravity, bruises, and multiple scratches, which are, for example, compatible with moving in brambles, continues the prosecutor. He also has trauma which is certainly compatible with a real loss of consciousness, but also with a violent effort”. Laure Zucchelo’s husband was finally taken into custody.
What do we know about her husband?
Faced with investigators, Laure Zacchello’s husband appeared “cold, silent, without empathy, without ever worrying about the future or fate of his wife”. The person concerned claims to suffer from “amnesia” and explains that he “does not remember anything”. The man works as a teacher. He is also a sports shooter and former reserve officer of the national gendarmerie, as explained by our colleagues at France 3.
He would also have led the investigators towards a false lead, “a sort of cache in which he has survival rations”: “The accused clearly appears to be part of a survivalist line”, continues Jérôme Bourrier. According to the public prosecutor, his separation from Laure Zacchello was “obviously experienced badly by the accused”.
What are the clues linked to the disappearance of Laure Zacchello?
Investigators noted that two strong cabinets which were in the master bedroom, within the family home, had been emptied. War weapons, category A, submachine guns and automatic pistols are missing. Furthermore, several personal effects belonging to the mother, such as her handbag and her two cell phones, were found by investigators, within the home itself. The car – locked – of the forty-year-old is also on site.
Investigators are also interested in the couple’s relationship. On February 7, Laure Zacchello reported a particularly violent argument to the authorities. She explained that her partner had tried to forcefully snatch her handbag. Bank transfers from her account, her email was hacked, the keys to her business premises were stolen… The person concerned felt unsafe. “She was sleeping on the sofa with her children, with her bag next to her and had placed objects on the floor so that she could hear her partner enter the room,” says the prosecutor.
Where is the investigation?
Investigators are still conducting searches and roundups to find the mother. They are also interested in a red Suzuki Samurai SUV with blue stripes. The vehicle was seen prowling around the forty-year-old’s home on several occasions in the days before her disappearance. The three children have been entrusted to family members.
