Manhunt Ends: Wanted Fugitive Arrested after Committing Multiple Murders

The hunt ended on Tuesday July 4 northwest of Angers. Since Sunday evening, around forty soldiers have been combing through a 20 km² area located between Montreuil-Juigné, Avrillé and Cantenay-Épinard, now with the help of four dog brigades (two Malinois shepherds and two Saint-Huberts), mounted post of the Lion d’Angers and air assets. The Nantes BRI was ready to intervene. The wanted man had a “criminological danger and has just committed acts of particular gravity”, indicated yesterday the public prosecutor of Angers, Eric Bouillard: two murders and one attempted murder. According to his statements to AFP this afternoon, the suspect was arrested shortly before 1 p.m. in a building under construction in Avrillé.

Escaped from a prison in Normandy

His run had started around June 20 during an exit permit. This 40-year-old from Reunion is imprisoned in Argentan prison in Orne, where he has 3 years left to serve for attempted murder by spouse and aggravated property damage.

It is probably on the train that he goes to Angers to a 40-year-old mother, found strangled to death on June 22 at his home. The main suspicions relate to him: the man was detained with the ex-spouse of the victim, and had met her during a visit. He is the last person to have seen her before her death.

Murders and attempted murder

This is where his flight begins and his trace is found in the north of Mayenne, with a vehicle stolen in Avrillé between June 24 and 26. The suspect is probably going to the funeral of his first victim, from Chailland. On June 28, he tries to strangle a young pregnant woman who surprises him during an attempted robbery at her home. She is saved by the intervention of a third party, and the man flees into a wood. He is surrounded for several hours in the forest of Mayenne but slips through the fingers of the Mayenne gendarmes on a difficult terrain of 4200 hectares. “He is an individual who masters the field”specified the public prosecutor of Angers, co-seized of the case with the Central Directorate of the judicial police.

Back in the Angevin conurbation, where a stolen vehicle was found burnt down on Saturday July 1 in Cantenay-Épinard. His owner, a septuagenarian domiciled in Chailland is identified and discovered dead at his home the day after. The theft and death seem linked: the former elected official and former mechanic from Mayenne would have surprised his attacker.

Residents urged to “stay safe at home”

The fugitive is last located in Montreuil-Juigné. “He knows how to be discreet and enters rather unoccupied houses to take vehicles”indicated the prosecutor, who wished “find him as soon as possible before he does something irreparable, again”. A search notice had been sent out and the inhabitants of the search area invited to lock up their homes last night.

2023-07-04 23:53:30
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