A 39-year-old French woman has been taken into custody in Switzerland after allegedly setting fire to her residence and being linked to the disappearance of her 75-year-old landlord.
On Saturday, Nov. 1, authorities in France discovered the mutilated body of a man along the banks of the Saône River in the commune of Fédry. While formal identification is still pending, investigators believe the remains may belong to a missing man from the Swiss village of Sainte-Croix, according to a statement released by the local public prosecutor’s office on the State of Vaud’s official website.
Police said the man, who had been reported missing the previous day, Oct. 31, was renting an apartment to the suspect in Sainte-Croix. Two days after his disappearance, on Sunday, Nov. 2, the property was set ablaze. The woman was detained shortly afterward by Swiss customs officers, the translated release said.
“She was questioned by the public prosecutor and placed in pretrial detention for setting fire to her apartment,” authorities stated. “She is also suspected of involvement in the disappearance of her landlord. At this stage, she remains presumed innocent.”
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According to AFP via CBS News, the arrest occurred one day after the discovery of the body in Fédry, a small village in eastern France. The Swiss village where the missing man and the woman lived is roughly 62 miles from where the remains were found.
When discovered, the body was reportedly dressed only in underwear and had been “severed in two at the waist and covered in a white substance,” said Arnaud Grécourt, the prosecutor for the Vesoul district of Haute-Saône. The victim also suffered multiple injuries, including burns and wounds to the skull, neck, torso, and hands — the latter suggesting defensive injuries. “Several of the wounds observed point to the use of a sharp instrument,” Grécourt told RTL, adding that initial autopsy findings indicate the victim likely died from hemorrhaging caused by a stab wound to the chest.
Jean Roblet, mayor of Fédry, described the shocking discovery to RTL: “You don’t see this every day … I’ve never witnessed anything like this.”
Authorities in the State of Vaud said no additional information will be released at this stage of the investigation. The Vesoul Judicial Court and the local French prosecutor’s office have not yet responded to requests for further comment.
