Dordogne murder mystery: British woman’s death confounds detectives

Original article by Jamie Grierson

The quiet village of Trémolat nestled in the Dordogne valley is best known for its “cingle”, where the sinuous river forms an Instagrammable loop.

Home to about 700 people, along with restaurants, a cafe, boulangerie and wine bar, it is a picture-perfect French idyll and a popular place for a getaway or even retirement.

Karen Carter, a 65-year-old British-South African national, knew the appeal of Trémolat well: she ran two gites in the village, a beautifully renovated 250-year-old farmhouse and neighbouring 18th-century stone barn collectively called Les Chouettes.

Carter, who bought the gites with her 65-year-old husband, Alan Carter, 15 years ago, divided her time between the Dordogne and the home the couple shared in the city of East London, South Africa.

But on 29 April, Carter’s time in the charming hamlet was brought to a brutal end when she was murdered in a frenzied attack outside Les Chouettes, shattering Trémolat’s tranquil existence and triggering a hunt for a killer who remains at large.

The tragedy has been one of the year’s most intriguing crime stories, becoming the subject of hundreds of column inches and bringing journalists from around the globe to Trémolat.

An autopsy reportedly revealed that Carter died from severe blood loss after being stabbed multiple times, collapsing and dying next to her car.

Eight serious wounds were reportedly noted in total, including to the “chest, abdomen and forearm”, as well as “superficial ones on the thigh, shoulder and thumbs”.

Carter had reportedly been at a wine tasting party at Cafe Village Trémolat, described on Facebook as “an association that wants to offer the people of Trémolat and the surrounding area a meeting place”, with about 15 other guests, including Eric Chassagne, the village’s mayor.

A few days after the attack a 69-year-old local woman – named in media reports as Marie-Laure Autefort – who was thought to have been at the wine soiree was arrested. She was released without charge shortly after.

It has emerged that Carter was discovered by a 75-year-old businessman, Jean-François Guerrier, with whom she was reportedly in a relationship. The nature of their relationship has been seized upon and speculated over by tabloids during the last eight months.

A number of reports cited the state prosecutor’s office as confirming Carter was in a relationship with Guerrier, a former managing director for Fujitsu Services. Both Carter and Guerrier volunteered at Cafe Village.

He is said to have found Carter after going to check on her when she did not return his calls. Finding her collapsed in a pool of blood, he tried in vain to resuscitate her.

Guerrier was reportedly taken in for questioning but was shortly after excluded from the investigation.

Carter’s husband, a former London Stock Exchange worker who was in South Africa at the time of the murder, expressed his shock at the revelations that his wife had “started a relationship” with another man, saying he understood Guerrier was “just a friend of hers”.

In comments made to the Times in May, Alan Carter, who runs an environmental consultancy, said: “What has come out of this investigation has confirmed a relationship I did not want to believe and that had been denied to me repeatedly by my wife.”

Speaking from South Africa, he added: “I told her that the gossip was tarnishing her reputation but she batted it away and said there was nothing in it. She told our friends the same.”

Later in the year, in a visit to Trémolat, Alan Carter told the same newspaper the gossip and speculation around what happened to his wife had been damaging: “It’s been extremely upsetting to hear what’s being said, though more for our children and the rest of the family than me.”

But with no clear motive for the attack, though many theories, the mystery continues to confound detectives who renewed their appeal for witnesses at the end of November.

Most recent reports suggest police are looking at whether “an outsider” committed the murder after considering both a “robbery gone wrong” scenario as well as a “personal grudge” from someone within Carter’s social circles.

It is understood a number of villagers, including maintenance workers, were asked to give forensic samples to eliminate them from inquiries and no links were made.

Among them were Chassagne, the mayor, as he was with Carter on the night she died. There is no suggestion he is a suspect, and he told Sud Ouest, a regional newspaper: “From what I can understand, they want to compare the DNA to that found in the victim’s car.”

It has been reported that none of the samples provided any matches to materials taken at the scene.

Carter had four adult children, two daughters and two sons who live in Britain, the US, Australia and South Africa.

The most recent police appeal said: “We need your help to identify the perpetrator. Your testimonies could prove crucial to the progress of the investigation.”

The appeal includes a photo of a smiling Carter, who was a member of a women’s over-50s football team there called Reines du Foot, with her daughters.

During a wake in Carter’s honour organised in South Africa, her family paid tribute to her. “It was in the early 1990s that our stars collided,” Alan Carter reportedly told the wake. “We started seeing each other, we fell in love and we got married.”

The inquiry continues.