Corpse of a man found in a bag in Mulhouse: children accused of murder, missing in Aude, unpaid rent… update on the investigation

It is a drama with many gray areas. On December 24, 2024, on the eve of Christmas, the owner of a box in Mulhouse discovered, shocked, the body of a man in very advanced decomposition. His wife and two children have just been indicted. Who was this man? What happened? The Dispatch takes stock of the investigation.

Unpaid rent

As the victim’s wife, who was the tenant of the box, had not paid her rent since June 2024, the owner decided in December to go there in order to empty the premises and regain use of it. It was there that he spotted, following the unbearable odor emanating there, a canvas bag hidden under a cupboard, according to information from RMC. Very quickly, the police discovered a man there in a “state of putrefaction”.

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Body of a man found in a bag in Mulhouse: his ex-wife and children indicted

A father who has been missing for 3 years

The victim is then quickly identified using his numerous tattoos: he is a 38-year-old man, father of two children and known to the police since his disappearance was reported… in June 2021. The report had been made – we do not know by whom – to the gendarmes of Port-la-Nouvelle, in Aude, almost 800 kilometers from the second largest city in Alsace. However, investigators were unable to determine precisely the date and location of the crime or the time since which the body had been hidden in the box in Mulhouse.

His wife and children indicted

The investigators quickly turned their attention to the partner and the two children, who had never reported the disappearance. Quickly arrested, his wife admitted to having “nurtured a criminal plan” with her two children, according to the press release from the Mulhouse prosecutor’s office. The children, a 21-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man, both known to the police, allegedly “deliberately killed the victim by suffocating him.” Interviewed and then imprisoned, they admitted, according to the prosecution, “their active participation, with their father’s partner, in the facts and in the concealment of the body.”

Motivations still unclear

But what could have motivated such a criminal cabal against this father? “Medico-legal investigations are still underway, given the age of the facts, to determine the precise causes of death,” explains the prosecution.

However, certain elements tend to justify the thesis of a violent husband and father. During his hearing, his ex-partner allegedly justified his actions “by the behavior of the victim, whom she declared to be alcoholic and violent.” The children reportedly reported physical and sexual assaults while they were still minors. However, they would never have filed a complaint for the assertions made. Investigators have not yet been able to confirm these statements.