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A murder investigation has been launched after the bodies of a mother and her four children were found in a blood-soaked Paris apartment on Christmas Day.
Her 33-year-old father has now been arrested after reports that he was missing and wanted by police in connection with the deaths in a suburb 25 miles northeast of the French capital.
The mother and her four children – two girls aged seven and 10, a boy aged four and a nine-month-old baby – were discovered around 9pm in an apartment in Meaux, where prosecutors described them as having “a “very violent crime scene” was found. and no signs of a break-in.
The 35-year-old mother and her two eldest daughters suffered so many knife wounds that it was impossible to say how many times they were stabbed, while the two youngest infants may have died from drowning or suffocation, prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier said.
Autopsies are due on Wednesday and an investigation into “intentional homicide with intent” has also been opened, which is being carried out by the Versailles criminal police.
A police source told Le Parisien on Tuesday morning that the father was arrested on Tuesday morning in Sevran, a commune on the outskirts of the capital, about 21 kilometers west of Meaux.
French police patrolled the building where five dead bodies were found in Meaux
(EPA/Christophe Petit Tesson)
Documents found during a search of the family's home indicate the father was admitted to a psychiatric ward in 2017, and prescriptions for antidepressants were also discovered, Bladier said. He was known to the police because he had already been accused of attacking his wife with a knife in 2019, although she did not press charges and the case was dropped because of his mental state at the time, the prosecutor said.
Mr Bladier said in an earlier statement: “At around 9pm, the bodies of five people were discovered in an apartment in Meaux after relatives raised the alarm, concerned about the lack of response from residents of the site.”
“The apartment showed no signs of break-in and the father of the family was absent. The latter is currently wanted by the police,” the prosecutor added.
A neighbor and family friend told radio station RMC that she wanted to have dinner with the family on Christmas Eve and spoke to the mother around 7 p.m., who confirmed that they would come for dinner after her husband returned home.
After the mother stopped responding about an hour later, the friend said she thought she was just tired – but after still not receiving a message the next day, she ventured into her apartment to find “blood on the front doorknob.” and alerted the police.
The woman described the mother as “very cheerful and very friendly” and “like a sister, always there for us,” adding: “She lived for her family, her children and for her husband.” Her children are friends with my children , they go to the same class in the same school.”
There have been several child murders in the Paris region this year. In late November, a 41-year-old man confessed to killing his three daughters – ages four, 10 and 11 – in the southeastern suburb of Alfortville.
Last month, a police officer killed his three daughters before taking his own life in his home in Val-d'Oise.