Bodies of murdered Frenchwomen head home

The bodies of two French women who were found shot to death in a nature preserve in northern Argentina are to be sent home as new evidence emerged from the crime scene, officials said.

Published: 4 August 2011 15:07 CEST

The bodies “have been prepared for the trip to their home country,” a court official told AFP Wednesday on condition of anonymity, saying the investigating judge needed to authorize the order and submit it to the Argentine government.

Repatriation of the bodies of French university students Houria Moumni, 24, and Cassandre Bouvier, 29, was expected on Thursday or Friday, the official said.

Officers late Wednesday found clothing thought to be from one or both of the women, in the ongoing search for evidence in the area, a police source told AFP.

Two witnesses have told investigators they heard gunshots on July 16 in the part of the preserve where the bodies were found.

Moumni and Bouvier were apparently killed last week while hiking in the San Lorenzo Gorge.

Their bodies were found on Friday on a trail in an area overlooking the provincial capital of Salta.

One of the women was shot in the head and apparently sexually abused. The other was shot in the back.

Investigators have taken DNA evidence from the bodies, including hair samples thought to be of the culprit and, from one of the victims, traces of semen.

Police said Tuesday they had arrested a new suspect who has been linked to the murder weapon, identified as Daniel Vilte.

A man who rents horses to tourists in the area, 43-year-old Francisco Tejada, was arrested and later released for lack of evidence.

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The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.

“National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police responded at 6.45 am to reports of “fire near the synagogue”, a police source said.

A source close to the case told AFP the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired. The individual died”.

“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He made clear there were no other victims other than the attacker.

Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the fire at the synagogue and another into the circumstances of the death of the individual killed by the police, Rouen prosecutors said.

Such an investigation by France’s police inspectorate general is automatic whenever an individual is killed by the police.

The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it is currently assessing whether it will take up the case.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7th attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Red hand graffiti was painted onto France’s Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned “odious anti-Semitism”.

“Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). wrote on X.

France was hit from 2015 by a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France’s security alert remains at its highest level.