At first glance, the Troadec family appeared to have vanished into thin air. Their toothbrushes had gone from their family home, food was rotting in their otherwise neat kitchen and the beds had been stripped and laundered, reports The Guardian.
When forensic police discovered blood stains and traces of DNA at the property in the north-west suburbs of Nantes, a more sinister scenario emerged, but nobody was prepared for the horror of Hubert Caouissin’s confession.
On Monday, it was revealed that Caouissin had admitted killing his former brother-in-law, Pascal Troadec, 49, Troadec’s wife, Brigitte, 49, and their children Sébastien, 21 and Charlotte, 18, then dismembering and burning their bodies.
The motive appeared to be a long-running family dispute over an unspecified number of pieces of gold, Pierre Sennès, the public prosecutor in Nantes, said on Monday afternoon.
The mystery of what had befallen the Troadec family had gripped France for three weeks. Headlines expounded various theories: had Sébastien, described as having psychological problems, killed his parents and sister? Was Pascal, who had suffered from depression, responsible for the deaths?
Relations between Caouissin, 46, married to Pascal Troadec’s sister, and his victims had been poisoned for some years. Caouissin was convinced his brother-in-law was hiding gold allegedly left in Troadec’s father’s will six years ago. He felt he and his wife had not received a share of the inheritance, Sennès said.
Caouissin told police that on 16 February, the last day members of the Troadec family were seen, that he went to his victims’ home with a stethoscope to listen to their conversations through the windows and doors.