10 years ago, a Gers village was plunged into horror after the double murder of its former mayor and the Viscountess of Castelbajac

In 2014, the village of Cazaux-Savès has barely more than 300 inhabitants, its Caumont castle to the north, which people have always come to visit, and its Sainte-Madeleine church in its heart. The small grocery store run by Pascale Huc for 70 years, open 7 days a week, closed the curtain two years earlier. Cazaux-Savès is a small, uneventful village in the Gers countryside.

But on November 12, 2014, a tragic double homicide devastated the town and its residents. Hubert Baron, a dynamic 99-year-old nonagenarian, is suddenly cut down on his doorstep by a light green Peugeot. The driver fled the way he arrived, towards Samatan. It was around noon.

Unfortunately, this is only the first act. The second is even wilder. Two hours later, around 2 p.m., the gendarmes were called from the Château de Caumont. Inside is the lifeless body of Michèle de Castelbajac. The 78-year-old chatelaine, widowed for a few months following the death of her husband due to illness, lived alone in her estate. Lying in her blood, she succumbed to her head injuries sustained by a “heavy and blunt object”.

A man is arrested at the castle. He will say that he deliberately rushed towards Hubert Baron. Ditto for the chatelaine he admitted to having killed. But the suspect is far from coherent. In addition to “hearing voices”, he will tell investigators: “I'm at home here!” speaking of the castle.

In 2017, almost three years after the events, three separate groups of experts concluded that discernment had been abolished and described a “schizophrenic psychosis with paranoid behavior”.

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Will the double murder of Cazaux be judged?

On June 7 of that same year, the chamber of the Agen Court of Appeal declared the criminal irresponsibility of Arnaud L., this young Agenais, author of the murders of November 12, 2014.

An injury

10 years later, the Cazalais obviously remember this tragic event. “It’s something that has had a big impact on the village, of course. Mr. Baron, we knew him well, we’ve lived here for 25 years,” says Michel, who lives a few meters from the former mayor’s house. “Whoever did this was never convicted. He had psychiatric problems, but to not be convicted after killing two people is horrible.”

“The Viscountess was a nice person. She always greeted my husband with a smile. And Mr. Baron was a dynamic person, who we saw walking around the town regularly despite his age,” remembers Nicole, who lives in the main street at the entrance to the village near the castle. “After this tragedy, it was hard. We were afraid. I was all alone in this house, I was afraid as soon as I heard a noise.”

“It’s the kind of event that a village prefers to forget. It remains a wound,” modestly underlines Fabrice Duchêne, 1st deputy mayor of the village.