Latest news with #JeanFrançoisGuerrier
Daily Mail
28-07-2025
- Daily Mail
French cops probing murder of Brit expat take DNA from mayor and 14 other guests of wine-tasting she attended before she was stabbed to death in Dordogne village
French police investigating the murder of a British woman who was found with eight stab wounds have taken DNA samples from the mayor of the town she lived in, along with 14 others. Karen Carter, 65 and a married mother of four, was found dead outside her home in Trémolat, east of Bordeaux, following a night out with friends on April 29. Just a few hours before her death, she had attended a wine tasting hosted by Jean-François Guerrier, her 75-year-old lover. In attendance were 15 others, including Eric Chassagne, the mayor of Trémolat. Chassagne told local media: 'I believe that everyone who may have met Karen during the day and evening of April 29th has been sampled. 'They [the police] want to close off certain lines of enquiry. The idea is to eliminate possibilities and move forward.' According to local media, investigators are hoping to match at least one person's DNA to samples found on the victim's car. Karen's case has seen cops interview dozens of people and arrest, and subsqeuently release, two people. Both Guerrier and neighbour Marie-Laure Autefort, who was said to have been passionately in love with the 75-year-old, were questioned in the days after Karen's body was found. But both were quickly released without charge. Karen left the wind-tasting evening at 10pm, and had promised to phone Mr Guerrier when she got home. Concerned when he heard nothing, Mr Guerrier, a former managing director of Fujitsu Services who worked in Britain at one point, drove to check on her, and found her body sprawled on the driveway of the property she ran as a rental business. Despite attempts to save her, Ms Carter died from severe blood loss, after being stabbed in the chest, groin, arm and leg, according to an autopsy. As cops continue to investigate, a village café that may hold the key to finding Karen's killer has since reopened – exactly a month after the savage murder. The Café Village, where she worked part time behind the bar along with an alleged secret lover, was immediately 'shut indefinitely' following the killing. Investigators leading the investigation feared that someone who held a grudge against Ms Carter – or 'the new couple' she was forming with Jean-François Guerrier, 74 – may have come to know her at the hugely popular social centre. Carter had been dating retired businessman Jean-François Guerrier (pictured) who has a farmhouse close to the Carters' holiday home Yet – despite the killer not being caught and locals fearing he or she may have 'strong connections' with the café – it was back in business just a few weeks later. 'Regular opening' resumed on May 28th, according to management, with events including pop music concerts and quiz nights. In December, Ms Carter was filming dancing with Mr Guerrier at the Café Village, to Gloria Gaynor's disco anthem, I Will Survive. In turn, Ms Carter's 65-year-old husband, Alan Carter, who spends most of his time in South Africa, said he was unaware of their relationship. He said he knew nothing about it until it was publicly announced by the French authorities, saying he had 'a feeling of complete betrayal.' Prosecutors believe the murder was a meticulously planned crime, carried out by someone who knew Ms Carter. He or she lay in wait, they believe, and took care to avoid leaving forensic evidence, before using 'unspeakable violence' against the defenceless Ms Carter, according an investigating source. 'It certainly could have been someone who knew the victim from the Café Village, or a contract killer acting on their behalf,' the source added. Ms Carter had British and South African nationality, and her husband was at their home in East London, South Africa, at the time of the killing. He arrived in Trémolat soon afterwards, and visited the scene of the suspected murder, before organising his wife's funeral, which took place in Bergerac earlier this month. Mr Guerrier has meanwhile declined to speak at length, saying: 'Karen was a lovely lady, but I can't answer any more questions at the moment.' He confirmed hosting a party at his converted farmhouse, close to the village, just before Ms Carter's death.
Telegraph
28-07-2025
- Telegraph
French mayor gives DNA to police over murder of British mother
A French mayor is among 15 people who have supplied DNA samples to police investigating the murder of a British-South African woman in the Dordogne. Karen Carter, 65, was stabbed to death on the front porch of the gîte she rented to holidaymakers in the tiny village of Trémolat on April 29. Hours before her death, Ms Carter had attended a wine tasting hosted by her 75-year-old lover and retired Fujitsu executive, Jean-François Guerrier, at his home. Fifteen other guests, including Eric Chassagne, the mayor of Trémolat, also attended the event. Approximately 10 minutes after driving home and arriving at her front door, the mother-of-four was found by Mr Guerrier sprawled on the ground next to her car with eight serious stab wounds on her 'chest, groin, arm and leg.' Investigators initially detained Mr Guerrier and a 65-year-old neighbour, Marie-Laure Autefort, who was said to have been passionately in love with Mr Guerrier, but both were quickly released without charge. Two months on, police are looking to narrow down the field of potential suspects. Ms Carter was was in the process of separating from her husband, Alan Carter, but he was in South Africa at the time of the murder. Gendarmes have taken DNA samples from all those who attended the event, according to Mr Chassagne, in the hope of making a match with DNA traces found inside Ms Carter's car. In an interview with France 3, a French news channel, Mr Chassagne said: 'I believe that everyone who may have met Karen during the day and evening of April 29th has been sampled. 'They [the police] want to close off certain lines of enquiry. The idea is to eliminate possibilities and move forward. Mr Chassagne said a squad of gendarmes has been stationed in the village throughout the course of the investigation. 'That was three weeks ago, a month ago. They were assigned to the case as a supplement to gain a fresh perspective.' 'Life has returned to normal. But as soon as there is the slightest micro-event, everything comes back to the surface.' 'People want the results of the investigation.' A clear motive for the murder has not been established, but investigators believe that the attacker may have harboured a grudge over Carter's burgeoning relationship with Mr Guerrier. Sylvie Martins-Guedes, the public prosecutor in Bergerac who is handling the investigation alongside her counterpart in Périgueux, Jacques-Edouard Andrault, said all hypotheses remain open. The night before her death, Carter told Beverley Needham, her neighbour and fellow expatriate, over dinner that she had filed for divorce. She was also in the process of buying a one-bedroom £135,000 cottage where she planned to settle and live alone with her dog. Mr Carter, who was in South Africa at the time of his wife's murder, had voiced concerns over his wife's relationship with Mr Guerrier but did not know it was romantic until it was announced publicly by French authorities. Mr Carter visited the scene of the attack the week after his wife's death and described her as an outgoing, friendly person who 'wouldn't hurt a fly', and said her death has been 'traumatic' for his family. 'I'm an introvert, and she's the exact opposite. She's an extrovert; she loves people, she loves to have fun. 'People love her, she has a good heart. 'She's the one who would bring home the lost dog, or cat, or whatever. She's that sort of person. Everyone liked her. That's why I married her. She's just lovely.'
Daily Mail
10-05-2025
- Daily Mail
What did Karen's killer know? Just 24 hours after the mother-of-four confided in a pal she was dead... now friends fear there was chilling motive
The night before she was murdered outside her Dordogne home, Karen Carter appeared to have much on her mind. The mother of four was in the process of walking away from her 30-year marriage and starting a new life in this idyllic corner of south-west France. Plans were already in motion. There was the sweet puppy she'd collected five days earlier, a new French bank account she'd set up and a one-bedroom cottage she was negotiating to buy and where she planned to live alone. That future, as we now know, is one the former teacher will tragically never get to live. For just 24 hours after confiding in a close friend about the dramatic new direction her life was taking, she was stabbed eight times in a frenzied late-night attack outside the 250-year-old holiday home she owned with her South African husband, Alan. Fatally injured by the savage blows, including one which penetrated her aorta, Karen was dead by the time emergency services reached her. She had just arrived home from a small wine-tasting evening at the hilltop property of Jean-François Guerrier – a local French man she had grown close to – a day after telling her friend she had asked her husband for a divorce. More, in a moment, of what prosecutors and neighbours say was a new relationship and how, after locking up his converted farmhouse and driving to join her at her home 10 minutes away, Guerrier, 74, found Karen dying in a pool of blood. Her killer, who had been lying in wait, hidden by the greenery which surrounds the property, had struck so fast and so furiously that Karen's handbag – and her traumatised cross-breed puppy, Haku – were still in her Dacia Duster car. Karen's brutal murder on the evening of Tuesday, April 29 – just two days after her 65th birthday – has sent shockwaves through Trémolat, a charming village with a population of just 600 in an area so popular with British expats that a 'Dordogne Chippy' fish-and-chip van visits every Wednesday. Given that the killer is still at large, a deep-seated unease has settled across this usually tranquil community, one which will not lift until he – or she – is caught. Who, then, might have wanted to hurt Karen, a woman described by locals this week as 'classy and charismatic', 'friendly' and 'great fun to be with'. Was she killed by a jealous love rival? Or, as some are speculating, was her death 'un meurtre commandité' – a contract killing? This week the Mail spoke to those closest to the case including Karen's best friend as well as the brother of a local woman, Marie-Laure Autefort, who was said to hold feelings for Guerrier and was briefly interviewed by police before being released. Police have spoken of the 'exceptional violence' used to kill Karen and a British woman who lives nearby told me: 'What is very obvious from her injuries is that whoever did this knew how to kill.' According to results of a preliminary autopsy, one of the eight blows Karen suffered pierced her aorta, their location demonstrating 'the desire to kill'. Inflicted by a sharp object – the weapon has not been recovered – one penetrated her liver; another her kidney and spine. Yet another almost severed her right arm. 'We are absolutely shocked at the brutality of Karen's death,' said the British woman. 'This is a gorgeous part of the world where people come to live in peace. It's terrifying to think that whoever did this is still out there.' Until the horrific events of last week, crime in Trémolat was almost unheard of. What need for door-bell cameras in a close-knit community where people don't bother to lock their cars or, often, even their front doors? At night, the streets are left in darkness, the only noises the cries of the tawny owls and foxes which hunt in the orchards and walnut groves. At the time Karen was murdered outside her home, her closest neighbour, who was watching the UEFA Champions League match between Arsenal and Paris St Germain on TV, heard nothing. 'There was no scream or cry for help. Nothing at all,' Christophe Pultier told me when we met at the entrance to Karen's driveway. Flowers have been left just a couple of metres from the vast bloodstain which still marks the spot on the gravel where she fell. 'The first I realised something was wrong was when I saw blue flashing lights outside my window not long after 10pm,' he said. 'I opened my door and went out to see what was going on. Then I heard someone saying: "Her name is Karen."' The case, not surprisingly, is the talk of the village, particularly among shocked British expats – many of whom knew Karen from Cafe Village, a community hub in Trémolat where she volunteered behind the bar with Guerrier. In a bizarre twist, a poster for cult horror film Le Boucher – The Butcher – hangs on the wall. The 1969 Claude Chabrol film, which tells the story of a serial killer stabbing women in the area, was shot in Trémolat. With no suspect in custody for Karen's murder – there is frustration at the apparent lack of progress in the case. Investigators have interviewed and released only two people: Guerrier, a retired Fujitsu executive who battled in vain to resuscitate her while waiting for emergency services and Marie-Laure Autefort, 69, a divorced mother-of-two who lived nearby and made no secret of her own love for Guerrier. Investigators say they have no reason to suspect Guerrier, who lived for several years in Camberley in Surrey while working in London. Madame Autefort, who was held in custody for 48 hours, has provided an alibi. But amid talk of a 'triangle d'amour', Sylvie Martins-Guedes the prosecutor leading the case has said investigators were focusing 'on people likely to have had something against the victim, or against the couple she had formed'. Investigators also confirmed the killing was pre-meditated. That announcement is highly unusual given that in France, investigations are usually closely guarded until any trial. Marie-Laure Autefort fled to Paris after being released by police and has not been seen at her home in Trémolat since. Adamant that his sister, a carer, could not have killed Karen even if she'd wanted to, Philippe Monribot told me: 'She's physically weak. She's even scared of the dark. Could someone like that slit a woman's throat? It's impossible. It had to be a man and I don't think it's random.' Monsieur Monribot said it was no secret his sister was in love with Guerrier and claimed that she was dazzled by the wealthy retired businessman. 'He took her to visit chateaux in the Loire and to fancy Paris restaurants. She didn't have much money and she fell for him. She definitely loved him. She'd have done anything for him. But his interest seemed to move on to Karen.' Marie-Laure was born in the village and raised her children there. Recently divorced, she was, said her brother, devastated by Karen's death. 'She liked her very much. She is in shock about what has happened. She can barely speak. She's staying away from the village because the atmosphere is so bad. She doesn't want people pointing the finger at her. They arrested her because she was an easy target having made her feelings clear for him.' The real killer said Monsieur Monribot, himself a former emergency worker, would have been drenched in blood. 'My own belief is that the killer isn't far away,' he said. Speaking to the Mail this week, however, Karen's friend and neighbour Beverley Needham, another British ex-pat, said she didn't believe there was anything romantic between Guerrier and Marie-Laure. 'As far as I'm aware, he had no interest in her, but he was gentle with her because she seemed vulnerable.' Beverley, who cooked dinner for Karen just 24 hours before her death, was also unaware of the depth of her relationship with Guerrier. She attempted to play down talk of a 'love triangle', describing widowed Guerrier rather more delicately as Karen's 'confidant'. He had helped her, she said, with the paperwork for her bank account and the purchase of the new cottage. 'If there was love, they were very discreet. She never ever told me they were lovers.' She added: 'He's a charming man who likes the company of women but not necessarily in a relationship way. He's had a lot of women friends visiting him over the years that I've seen, mainly from Belgium because he worked there at some point as well as in the US and the UK.' As for Karen, Beverley said: 'They appreciated each other's company. She never told me: "We're shacking up together" or "He's sleeping at my house."' But she admitted Karen was sensitive to gossip in the village. 'She said: "Don't say to everybody that I'm seeing Jean-Francois all the time."' Did Karen lie about their relationship because she was worried about a love rival? Or was she concerned about news reaching her husband, 65-year-old marine biologist Dr Alan Carter, who still lives at the couple's home in East London in South Africa? He said this week that 'what has come out of this investigation has confirmed a relationship I did not want to believe and that had been denied to me repeatedly by my wife'. He said he'd been left with 'a feeling of complete betrayal'. Dr Carter said he had challenged his wife, whose parents came from Lancashire and emigrated to South Africa in the 1950s, about the time she was spending with Guerrier, a man he knew well. 'I told her that the gossip was tarnishing her reputation but she batted it away and said there was nothing in it. She told our friends the same.' Dr Carter arrived in Trémolat on Tuesday. Hours after visiting the spot where his wife was killed, he told the Mail: 'It's been very difficult coming back to the village. We are still struggling with everything. I just want to focus on the investigation.' The last time he saw Karen was last month when she toured South Africa with Trémolat's over-50s women's football team. He only found out about her death when a cousin in Yorkshire saw a post on Facebook and called him in South Africa. The couple owned three French holiday homes, let and managed by Karen, and in recent years had largely lived separately although they regularly spoke on the phone. Their four adult children live in Australia, Britain and the US. Dr Carter preferred to be at their home in South Africa where he runs an environmental agency and would visit Trémolat for holidays. Karen adored the Gallic lifestyle and after buying their first house there 15 years ago after successful breast cancer treatment, spent increasing amounts of time in the Dordogne. Her husband said she 'loved the village' which nestles on the banks of the Dordogne river and has a 12th century church. Friend Beverley insists that the night before she died, Karen told her she had served her husband with divorce papers and he didn't want to sign them. Karen's neighbour Christophe Pultier said that a week or so before her murder he saw her walking into her home with Guerrier late at night. But he added: 'Whatever was going on, she didn't deserve to die like that.' Speaking at his farmhouse, Monsieur Guerrier declined to answer my questions about their relationship, saying only that 'Karen was a lovely woman'. Said by friends to be still in shock, he is caring for Haku, the puppy they collected together from a breeder recommended by one of his daughters. The simpler existence Karen hoped to embark on with that puppy – and perhaps her lover – has now been cruelly and brutally cut short by someone who is possibly still lurking behind the shuttered windows of Trémolat's Perigordian stone houses.
