Facebook message led to arrest

A FACEBOOK message led to a murder suspect being arrested after he posted that he was returning to France from Malaysia.

Ludovic Pierrefeu, 26, was arrested by gendarmes as he stepped down from the plane at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport. He had posted a message to friends saying he was heading "Home Sweet Home" and ready to "spend the holidays skiing".

He was charged at Villefranche-sur-Saône with the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Marine Boisseranc, in 2005 at Chazay-d'Azergues, in the Rhône. Marine had been stabbed to death at her home.

Pierrefeu immediately became a suspect as they had only recently broken up and he was arrested in 2006 but freed after no evidence was found.

However, Marine's father found witness statements in the murder file from two people who saw a young man in a white sweatshirt near her home. He managed to track them down and they identified Pierrefeu, who was by this time in Malaysia.

Malaysia and France do not have an extradition treaty so police had to wait until he returned to French soil to arrest him.