The 60-year-old man presented himself to Nice police on Saturday evening, saying he had had an argument with his wife or ex-wife, an element which remains to be clarified. He said he did not know in which state the victim was, the prosecution explained.
The man then led police to a garage where a vehicle belonging to his son was parked. In the trunk they discovered the body of the 45-year-old victim. Both father and son were taken into custody.
According to preliminary forensic evidence, the cause of death was strangulation.
The son, who is 24 years old, is the eldest of the couple’s three children, the other two being 21 and 17.
Nice mayor Christian Estrosi tweeted: “Devastated after the discovery, in Nice, of the body of a woman who would have been killed by her ex-companion.”
“I want to denounce the horror of this murder. My thoughts are with the children, the family and the relatives of the victim who belonged to our community,” the mayor continued, underlining it is important to fight intra-family violence.
That same day, two women, aged 27 and 56, had been stabbed to death in Maine-et-Loire and Meurthe-et-Moselle. Their partners, too, were taken into custody. Both murders led female organisations to voice their opinions on France Info radio.
“Violence against women does not end with the new year. What must be understood is that feminicides are only the top of the iceberg and that there is a great deal of psychological and physical violence that takes place. These things took place before the killing of this woman,” denounced Marylie Breuil, member of #NousToutes.
According to a report from the Ministry of the Interior, 102 men in France killed their spouse or ex-spouse in 2020, down from 146 in 2019. The collective against gender-based and sexual violence #NousToutes counts 113 feminicides in 2021.
