French police search caves for family murder suspect Ligonnès
French police are searching caves in the southern Var region for the man who has been on the run for two years, after murdering his wife and four children in the western city of Nantes.
Issued on: Modified:
About 50 invesigators, gendarmes and firefighters – including a special team trained for work in dangerous environments – are exploring dozens of caves, wells and disused mines in the wooded massif des Maures near Draguignan and Toulon.
Investigators say they have incontrovertible evidence that Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès committed the murders, which was discovered when the bodies were found under the patio at the family’s house in Nantes.
The victims had been drugged and then shot and their corpses were not found until two weeks after the crime.
Police believe Dupont de Ligonnès may have killed himself.
The family, Agnès Dupont de Ligonnès and their children Arthur, 21, Tomas, 18, Anne, 16, and Benoît, 13, lived near the area where the search is taking place in the 90s and Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès stayed at a hotel in the Var shortly before the murders.
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning
Subscribe