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Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The France expat dream that became a nightmare: British mother, 65, is seen dancing and smiling with her French lover in video captured just months before she was stabbed to death
This is the moment a British expat stabbed to death in France was seen smiling and dancing with her secret lover in a clip filmed just five months ago. Karen Carter throws an arm in the air to Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive' as she playfully bumps hips with businessman Jean-Francois Guerrier on a packed dance-floor. The care-free moment was recorded in December outside Café Village, a bar where Mrs Carter and Mr Guerrier worked closely together in the tranquil Dordogne hamlet of Trémolat. The footage was taken during a live music event hosted by the café every Wednesday, in which a British couple set up a fish and chip van right outside the bar. Mrs Carter, 65, a mother-of-four, was stabbed to death in a frenzied attack outside her converted farmhouse last Tuesday evening after returning from a wine tasting event. Locals believe the grisly murder to be a crime of passion and police have stated they believe the suspect may have held a 'grudge' about her new relationship with Mr Guerrier, a former managing director of Fujitsu Services who found her body. Her husband, Alan Carter, was expected to fly to France this afternoon from his home in East London, South Africa, having spoken of a 'betrayal' at his wife's dalliance with the 74-year-old. His wife had travelled to Trémolat, some 65 miles east of Bordeaux, by herself last month and had been spending more time alone in the French countryside, where she and her husband had three rental properties. On the night she died, Mrs Carter had enjoyed a wine-tasting event Mr Guerrier had hosted at his large, gated compound in the hills overlooking the village. She left some time around 10pm, driving home in her Dacia Duster. Mr Guerrier checked on her shortly afterwards and found her sprawled on her driveway by her car in a pool of blood. She had been stabbed eight times her chest, groin, arm and leg. Despite the best efforts of medics, she died at the scene from severe blood loss. A post-mortem examination revealed she most likely 'tried to defend herself from a frenzied attack'. Mr Guerrier was initially questioned but subsequently released by French authorities. Mr Carter, 65, said he had been unaware of his wife's love affair with Mr Guerrier and said it had been a betrayal. He told The Times that the police investigation had confirmed 'a relationship I did not want to believe, and that had been denied to me repeatedly by my wife'. He said confirmation of the affair had left him with 'a feeling of complete betrayal'. Mr Carter revealed he had challenged his wife about the amount of time she was spending with retired businessman, Mr Guerrier. He said there were tensions between the pair over where they should spend their later lives since purchasing their Trémolat home in 2009. Mrs Carter had become engrossed in village life and the pair grew more distant - spending most of their time on different continents. She worked closely with Mr Guerrier behind the bar at Café Village pouring drinks for villagers. Speaking to the newspaper, her husband Mr Carter added: 'It was so obvious that Jean-François had an affection for Karen, and I feel he took advantage of the time we were spending apart. 'I felt the Café Village attracted a lonely bunch of people who had nothing else to throw their lives into. I felt they were having a strong influence on Karen, and she really did not know that much about them.' Mr Carter was last with his wife three weeks ago, when she visited South Africa with Trémolat's over-50s women's football team. He last spoke to her on the morning of her death and only learnt about it the next afternoon from a cousin who had read a post on Café Village's Facebook page. Mr Carter will reunite with his four children for the small funeral he is now arranging in Trémolat. Mr Guerrier has been lying low since finding his lover's body and has been unavailable for comment. He was, up until a month ago, the chairman of the village committee which would meet regularly at the premises. He tendered his resignation to allow someone else to takeover the role. Speaking at his home, a female relative, who spoke with an English accent, said briefly: 'He doesn't want to say anything but he's fine.' The holiday gîte the Carters ran, a converted farmhouse and barn called Les Chouettes - or The Owls - sleeps 16 people and is on a road popular with British expats. It remains cordoned off by police tape with officers having searched surrounding woodland for a possible murder weapon. A 69-year-old woman, known to Ms Carter was arrested and her property in the village searched but she too was released without charge last Friday.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Cafe that may hold key to French murder of British woman who worked there 'with secret lover' reopens exactly one month after the killing
A village café that may hold the key to finding the killer of a British woman in south west France has reopened – exactly a month after the savage murder. 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 29th. The Café Village, where she worked part time behind the bar along with an alleged secret lover, was immediately 'shut indefinitely'. 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. 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 last week. 'Regular opening' resumed on May 28th, according to management, with events including pop music concerts and quiz nights. Mr Guerrier, who was president of the community association which ran the Café Village, was arrested and questioned at length following the murder, before being released without charge. It was Mr Guerrier who found Ms Carter outside her home, covered with stab wounds, before failing to revive her. He confirmed Ms Carter had spent the night at a 'wine tasting evening' at his house, but failed to telephone him when she got home, and so he went to investigate. 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.' Despite the enquiry into Ms Carter's death being upgraded to a full-blown murder enquiry earlier this month, there is a still no sign of the killer – or the murder weapon used. This has led prosecutors to believe that it 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. Despite searches in the area, and two arrests including of Mr Guerrier, no serious suspect has yet emerged. Bergerac prosecutors opened the initial investigation, without focusing on a single motive. They confirmed that Ms Carter suffered eight severe stab wounds, and said she could have died because of 'a grudge' against her and Mr Guerrier, motivated by their secret affair. Frustrated with the lack of progress, prosecutors announced in early May that a 'judicial investigation into murder' was being opened. This meant that an instructing judge in Périgueux had stronger powers to interview people, to request documents, and to liaise with overseas authorities. 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 has confirmed hosting a party at his converted farmhouse, close to the village, just before Ms Carter's death. She 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. Police also initially arrested a neighbour of Mrs Carter, 69-year-old Marie Laure Autefort, but released her when she was able to provide an alibi. Her brother, Philippe Monribot, said she was infatuated with Mr Guerrier – but he insisted she was not capable of killing Mrs Carter. 'My sister is innocent. She is devastated by what has happened,' said Mr Monribot. Ms Carter had lived in the Dordogne for more than a decade, and was a member of a women's over-50s football team called the Queens of Football (Reines du Foot) Joëlle Mayer, who worked part time with Ms Carter at the Café Village, said: 'She was a charming, relaxed person, happy to be alive, smiling, and loved by everyone here. 'The town has a very active community life, and she was part of it. She participated in all the activities of the community café.'
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.
Globe and Mail
10-05-2025
- General
- Globe and Mail
The cabinet of civic wonders (some assembly required)
In a thick-walled warehouse in Liberty Village, tokens of Toronto's history rested on a heavy table. An arrowhead thousands of years old, plucked by a child from the earth; a British soldier's crossplate from Fort York, dented perhaps by shrapnel in the explosions of 1813. William Lyon Mackenzie's pocket watch; a flyer for Mahalia Jackson's 1956 Massey Hall concert, presented by the local Grant AME Church. These items had been plucked from Toronto's municipal collection of 1.3 million objects and artifacts to prove a point. 'Some people think that Toronto isn't about anything – that it has no past,' said Karen Carter, the city's director of museums and heritage services. 'We need a place to display these things and show people that there is so much to learn.' Soon her wish may come true, completing a 60-year quest for Toronto to have a dedicated city museum. It would find a home in Old City Hall, a national historic site at Queen and Bay streets. Finished in 1899, E.J. Lennox's rambling Richardsonian-Romanesque pile is now vacant, and the city is working to reimagine its future. The institution and the place are an ideal match. Putting them together will be among the most important things the city has ever done. The question is whether Toronto – its government, its citizens and philanthropists – can accomplish this necessary task. Ms. Carter, who now leads the city's network of 12 museums and historic sites, has a strong, unorthodox vision for the city museum: It should bring together existing community groups and community museums into an association with the city government. They could then share ideas, collections and resources. 'You can't tell a story from just one perspective,' she said. 'So many people from so many places make Toronto work … and artifacts only have meaning if they're connected to people.' They might come together at Old City Hall. The building was finished in 1899, after more than a decade of controversy over its size and lavish construction. (The Globe complained about overspending.) The hall dominated the skyline for half a century: Local architect E.J. Lennox had created a showy, four-sided palace with a bell tower at the head of Bay Street. Its sandstone walls were carved with intricate floral and geometric patterns. Today, its gargoyles still depict a rogue's gallery of local figures, including Lennox himself. By mid-century the building was crowded and seen as obsolete. When Viljo Revell's new, modernist City Hall opened across the street in 1965, there were calls to tear down the old one. Instead, in 1972, provincial courts moved in, and occupied the building until this year. High security generally kept people out. 'I look forward to the day that this is open to the public in a way that you don't have to commit a crime to see it,' Toronto City Councillor Josh Matlow told me recently. Mr. Matlow was leading me through Old City Hall along with local councillor Chris Moise and city staffers including Ms. Carter. This is a place with a complex history. Its basement was a jail; half a century of suffering is baked into it. Upstairs, the former city council chamber and mayor's office were cluttered up with office furniture by the courts. But their bones are still intact, including murals by Gustav Hahn. In the lobby, a stained-glass mural by Robert McCausland, The Union of Commerce and Industry, shows an allegory of the city in 1899. Shipyard workers and builders stand proudly in one corner, representatives of the world's continents in the other. One is an African in a loincloth, holding an elephant tusk. Across the way, murals by George Reid depict scenes from the city's history alongside the names of local notables. In a panel title Staking the Pioneer Farm, a surveyor prepares his instruments to measure out the colonization of the land. Above it is the name of the Shawnee leader Tecumseh. Ms. Carter and her curators would surely love to get to work interpreting all this for today's Toronto. The time is right. Old City Hall's future is in question. In January, Toronto City Council allotted $18-million over 10 years for upkeep and future planning. The goal is to find interim uses, such as retail or temporary cultural events, and a longer-term plan, which could include a city museum. However, there's a danger that this opportunity could be swamped by paperwork. Two city departments, Corporate Real Estate Management and the development agency CreateTO, are working on it. But this place is not 'Real Estate.' It is a civic building of great symbolic importance. Toronto's government has spent 15 years studying it, getting nowhere and making bad assumptions. (The most recent proposal would have moved the nearby public library branch from Revell's City Hall, sucking people and energy out of that building. Why not open a second branch?) Old City Hall demands a small, dedicated project team, reporting to the top of City Hall, with dedicated funding and clear, short-term goals. The city's chief planner, Jason Thorne, has launched a 'Beautiful City' initiative. Here is a chance to turn that theme into a physical reality. Mr. Matlow, wisely, is pushing Toronto to move fast and think big. The future of Old City Hall 'has been lost in process for years,' he said. 'The first thing is for work to begin on refurbishing it and, to the greatest extent possible, open its doors to the public.' The building, admittedly, presents a big woolly challenge. It is large – more than 400,000 square feet in total – and it is old. Six years ago, city staff estimated that a full upgrade would cost $225-million in 2020 dollars. But that is absurd. Courts operated here until very recently. The building isn't museum-quality space right now, but it could hold something. There is a way to, as Mr. Matlow suggests, open the doors and let the public in. I recently asked heritage architect Michael McClelland of ERA for suggestions. His response: What about the large open-air courtyard in the middle of the building? Open the gates, bring some chairs and tables and planters, and set up a coffee kiosk. Do it this summer. Show that the city can actually get things done. From there, it is imperative that the city use the right process to think about the future. This is one of the most important buildings in Canada. You cannot allow anonymous real-estate managers to decide what exactly it should be. The architecture and the use must be considered at the same time. In the short term, any construction must begin with a design competition. How could architects and landscape architects – local ones, even – use quick and cheap moves to bring this place to life? For long-term changes, the only proper path is an open, international design competition, just like the one that produced the new City Hall. What kind of place should this be, finally? A model is the Castelvecchio museum in Verona, where modernist exhibition designs by the great Carlo Scarpa bring sprezzatura to a 14th-century palace. But there are many others. So-called 'experimental preservation' is in the air these days, being advanced by local practices such as Giaimo. The Barcelona architects Flores & Prats renovated a falling-down social club into a theatre complex, Sala Beckett, and the result is being celebrated around the world. The fusty 1880s designs of Old City Hall would provide an incredible counterpoint to a forward-looking, contemporary vision. And, speaking of vision: Old City Hall should become part of a larger civic precinct. Today, its stretch of Queen Street is closed to vehicles for the building of the Ontario Line. This should remain a continuous car-free zone that links the Eaton Centre to City Hall and then the nascent University Park. This would transform the ceremonial and political heart of Toronto, with the museum in the middle. Is all this a lot to ask? Maybe. 'In Toronto, I think we've had politicians focus on the bottom line as opposed to a vision for the city,' Ms. Carter reflects. 'But for a place like this, you have to be in visionary mode. You have to dream.'
Daily Mail
09-05-2025
- Daily Mail
'They knew how to kill': British expat's arteries severed in a frenzied attack, rumors of a love triangle - now French police call it an 'assassination'
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 ex-pats – 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.
