British woman murdered in Dordogne: French authorities have ‘no knowledge’ of a second attack

UK media reports of a second attack on a woman in the Dordogne village of Trémolat where Briton Karen Carter was murdered on April 29 have been dismissed by French prosecutors.

The clarification comes as speculation continues over the motive behind what investigators have described as an “exceptionally violent” and “premeditated” knife attack on Ms Carter, 65, a former teacher and mother of four. 

She was stabbed eight times outside the gîte she ran in Trémolat, where she had lived for around ten years.

Responding to UK media reports that a 28-year-old woman had been knocked unconscious while walking her dog in the village just weeks after Ms Carter's death, the Bergerac prosecutor's office told The Connexion it has “no knowledge” of any such attack.

Mystery remains

Bergerac prosecutor Sylvie Martins-Guedes confirmed that police are focusing on a “personal grudge” as a likely motive, and are reviewing the movements of individuals “likely to wish ill” of either Ms Carter or the man who found her, 74-year-old Jean-François Guerrier - with whom the investigation revealed she had recently started a relationship.

Mr Guerrier, a retired local businessman, had accompanied Ms Carter to a wine-tasting event earlier in the evening of her murder. 

However, the pair left separately, with Ms Carter returning home alone about ten minutes before him. 

He discovered her grievously wounded at around 22:15 and was later questioned and released without charge.

A woman in her sixties was also briefly detained in early May while police established her whereabouts on the night of the killing. She has since been released.

Ms Carter’s husband, Alan, who lives in South Africa, has acknowledged that she had been in a relationship with Mr Guerrier. 

He said he had initially found this hard to accept, but that the relationship had since been confirmed by the investigation.

Investigators have carried out multiple searches in nearby woodland and fields, including the recovery of tyre marks left by a vehicle parked in a copse half a mile from the scene. 

A formal judicial inquiry for murder contre X - the legal term used in France when there is no identified suspect - remains open.

Ms Carter, who was active in the local community and a member of an over-50s women’s football team, was well known and well liked in the village of around 600 residents. 

Her death is the first serious violent crime reported there in over four decades.