House of Terror: Xavier DuPont De Ligonnès

[drew790]

I struggled with episode 3 due to the nature of it being entirely in French. I appreciate the attempt to do something new though. This is one where I felt the lack of a narrator hurt it for me.

As to the case itself, once i was able to give it 100% of my attention (and frequent use of the pause button so as not to miss things) it was fairly interesting. Xavier DuPont De Ligonnès, a near-broke French aristocrat, allegedly murdered his wife and 4 children (3 biological, 1 step) and disappeared. After a week of taking no effort to hide his travels while authorities had no idea the family was dead, he parked his car and walked off into the mountains with what appeared to be a rifle bag never to be seen again.

I would have liked some clarity, and maybe I missed it, as to sightings. My take away from the episode was that after he walked to the mountains he's never been seen again. The theory that he's out there comes from the possibility that he might have hiked or hitchhiked to Italy or Croatia but there's no Brad Bishop in the washroom moment.

I little bit of google, translated badly by Chrome to english, turns up basically more of the same. There was something mailed to a journalist in 2015 allegedly from him and a big media arrest that tuned out to be false in 2019. Other than that it doesn't seem like there's been any sightings, verifiable or not since he took off for the mountains.

From my POV he killed himself in the mountains and animals took care of the rest.

[drew790]

From the french-translated Wikipedia, aftermath not covered in the episode:

Discovery of bones
During the evening of April 28 , 2015, bones are discovered by a walker in the forest of Bagnols, near Fréjus , near the place where Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès was last seen 98 .

The police then reconciles with the disappearance of the suspect, and conducts analyzes on what seems to remain of a survival camp, where are also found some objects such as an empty wallet, a lighter, glasses, a bag , a magazine and an invoice dating from 2011 99 . A medical brooch was also found in the stranger's forearm. However, to the police's knowledge, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès did not wear a forearm pin, although it is not impossible that he had surgery after his disappearance 99 . In addition, it would seem that the magazine found in the camp dates rather from the year 2010. However, the events which preceded the flight of Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès date, them,

The 1 st May 2015, the RTL.fr website reports that "the DNA taken from the personal effects of the corpse discovered on the evening of April 28 in Bagnols-en-Forêt in the Var is not that of Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès but that of a other man unknown at this time " 100 .





Mail sent to a journalist
A Nantes journalist received halfjuly 2015a letter containing a photo representing Arthur and Benoît, the elder and the youngest seated in front of a kitchen table. On the back of the photo is written "I am still alive" 101 and the somewhat wobbly and enigmatic formula, written in lower case "from there until this time" , followed by the signature "Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès". The identity of the sender remains uncertain 102 .




Track of the monastery of Roquebrune-sur-Argens
The January 9, 2018, the fugitive's birthday, the daily Ouest-France announces at around 9 a.m. that intervention by the judicial police takes place at the Saint-Désert monastery in Roquebrune-sur-Argens . Twenty investigators intervene in this religious building, where two witnesses claim to have recognized the father of the family during a mass. This monastery had never been searched by investigators. Police officers from the PJ of Nantes , assisted by their colleagues from Toulon , take the fingerprints, without success. Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès is not there 103 , 104 .




Glasgow arrest and media outburst
The October 11, 2019at 20 h 44 105 , Le Parisien announcement with a blindfold "Exclusive" that "Xavier Dupont Ligon was arrested" at the Glasgow International Airport 106 . The newspaper later said it had crossed the information with five separate sources close to the file and reliable, some having been authenticated by the Scottish police 105 , 107 .

But quickly, the real information was that "a man suspected of being Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès [was] arrested" 108 . French police call for "the greatest caution" regarding the identification of the suspect 108 . Scottish police tells 23 pm a man was arrested and that his identification is under 105 . It was only an anonymous denunciation 108 , relayed to the French authorities by the Interpol office in London which required verification 105 . AFP relays at 23 h 30 holding a search forLimay ( Yvelines ) at the home of the arrested man. At midnight, the public prosecutor of Nantes calls for "caution", signaling that the match between the suspect and the killer is not made 105 .

However, many newspapers, La Dépêche du Midi , Ouest-France , Le Dauphiné libéré , Le Courrier picard , L'Yonne Républicaine , Latest News from Alsace , Midi libre , Presse-Océan , Le Télégramme , L'Alsace , L'Ardennais , L'Est Républicain , L'Union and La Montagne , based on an article by Le Parisien from an AFP dispatch sent at 9 p.mand confirming the facts on the basis of five separate sources 105 , make them an unequivocal assertion that it is indeed Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès (some editors withdrawing the conditional minutes from their closure 105 ) and the chains of News continuously broadcast "special editions" overnight and the next morning. Interviewed late at night and the next morning, the neighbors of the arrested man declared to investigators and the radio that it was "impossible" for the arrested man to be Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès 105 .

The next day, October 12 , 2019The media call the information in the conditional (AFP dispatch 10 h 50 ) 105 and finally announce authorities to 12 h 55 that the man arrested is not Xavier Dupont Ligon 109 , 110 : the fingerprints do not match very partially (5 points out of 13), the distance between the eyes would not be the same and the man arrested was older 105 , 111 . DNA analyzes definitively confirm the error on person 112 . The Parisianthen criticizes the Scottish police for having confirmed false information to their French counterparts, without casting any doubt as to the identity of the arrested person 105 , 107 .

[danmanx]

Originally Posted by drew790

The theory that he's out there comes from the possibility that he might have hiked or hitchhiked to Italy or Croatia but there's no Brad Bishop in the washroom moment.

From my POV he killed himself in the mountains and animals took care of the rest.

That made me chuckle, even though, it shouldn't have. I also wasn't too crazy about a total french episode either, however, I did find it interesting. Since I believe he was guilty from the start, and did everything to cover the house and tracks, I wasn't happy with him disappearing into the woods.

One thing that REALLY burned me was that he removed the pictures in the house. You murdered them. You should stare at the pictures and think about what you've done. This was a personal crime. In his mind, I'm sure, so his friend said he was doing them a favor so they wouldn't have to live in poverty or "without disgrace". But, yet, for him, he was ok with wining and dining and driving through France. Was he even upset about what he did? He seemed more like a sociopath, to me, that a decent human being.

If one of your last 'gestures' is to remove your son from this world, maybe you should remove yourself first.

Sorry, I know I'm too emotionally invested. I just find killing children deplorable.

[drew790]

I wondered if he had taken the pictures with him on his suicide trek. But he was apparently home for days after they disappeared before he himself left so it could be the other as well.

I just wonder how the murders went down without any blood being found anywhere in the house.

[danmanx]

Originally Posted by drew790

I wondered if he had taken the pictures with him on his suicide trek. But he was apparently home for days after they disappeared before he himself left so it could be the other as well.

I just wonder how the murders went down without any blood being found anywhere in the house.

We're talking about days of time and not hours for planning so my guess he had everything so planned out, he had one killing floor for all of them with plastic everywhere. Then he just placed them on it and fired on them. Perhaps a block of wood or something thick behind their heads? I'm not quite sure, I'm no expert.

[drew790]

Originally Posted by danmanx

We're talking about days of time and not hours for planning so my guess he had everything so planned out, he had one killing floor for all of them with plastic everywhere. Then he just placed them on it and fired on them. Perhaps a block of wood or something thick behind their heads? I'm not quite sure, I'm no expert.

I guess it would depend on how powerful the sleeping pills were. It was implied that the wife went to bed BAU, otherwise there wouldn't have been the pajamas and especially the CPAP. If it let you go about your nightly routine you'd think they'd wake up if they were attempted to be moved to a Dexter room.

[Appliance]

That was a crazy story, but as with many "maybe he started a new life somewhere" cases from the original UM, I don't believe he's out there.

He was broke or nearly broke. I don't see what kind of money he would have lived on the last 9+ years. Being born into privilege and aristocracy, he's not somewhere working construction to make a living.

If they're going to do European cases, I'd like to see an episode on the 2012 Annecy shootings aka Chevaline killings.

[TheCars1986]

French Brad Bishop did the same thing American Brad Bishop did shortly after abandoning his car...committed suicide in the woods.

[atomicfizz]

I also think he's dead in that area he was seen walking in to. Somewhere. Yes, I know they searched but how many times have we seen remains found where there had already been multiple searches, especially when it's difficult terrain like that. I just hope there's something left so that they can find something and put this case to rest some day.

[Jediknight1823]

I could not get over how much Xavier looked like Mark Harelik. You may remember him from Big Bang Theory or as Davis Lynch in Wings.

[isotope]

I thought this segment was interesting and well done (very high production values) and I am glad see cases outside North America but, AGAIN, it struck me as narratively bloated (the sloooooooow 20+ minute build up to the discovery of the crime) and not that much of a mystery...unless you believe that someone with no survival training can live in the woods of France for a decade, or can traipse around the European Union for years on end without detection.

The guy was seen walking off into the woods with a rifle. It's obvious what happened

[RaidenKhan]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

French Brad Bishop did the same thing American Brad Bishop did shortly after abandoning his car...committed suicide in the woods.

But in both cases, why go to sooooooo much trouble just to kill yourself after all? Why not just do it at the scene?

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by RaidenKhan

But in both cases, why go to sooooooo much trouble just to kill yourself after all? Why not just do it at the scene?

Because they are not thinking rationally, and they wanted to go to a place where they felt "comfortable" to kill themselves.

[pardilia]

Originally Posted by RaidenKhan

But in both cases, why go to sooooooo much trouble just to kill yourself after all? Why not just do it at the scene?

Xavier seems to have taken a "tour" of places he'd been happy, though, which I think is an important distinction. And why I think he committed suicide somewhere nearby his last known location.

[Todd Mueller]

Based on the lengths he went to hide the bodies and protect the crime scene, I was pretty sure he is on the run. But then when you consider is tour of memorable places and the fact that he didn't seem to be in a hurry, I'm not so sure.

Maybe he planned on running and starting over, and then realized it was pointless and just killed himself in the wilderness. That looked like a very rugged area, so he could easily have found himself a hiding spot and done it there. But he could also have staged that to buy himself time to get out.

In any case, what a sick S.O.B. Just like Brad Bishop, I can't even fathom violently killing your family like this. How do you systematically eliminate your children, including the one he had to wait to kill? Ugh. Such a beautiful family and just a horrible ending.