Suspected sighting of French family murder suspect in Texas: call for witnesses made
Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès was reportedly spotted in 2020 in Texan county he visited when younger
Remote Brewster County is home to the Big Bend National Park. Inset photo shows call for witness made by local sheriff department on social media
David Wayne Radzieta/Shutterstock/Brewster County Sheriff Office/Facebook
A potential sighting of a Frenchman accused of murdering his wife and four children has led to a call for witnesses by American authorities.
The information comes soon after a previous officer in the case claimed the suspect fled to the US, despite official investigations remaining inconclusive.
Mr Dupont de Ligonnès is widely suspected of murdering his wife and four children in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) in 2011, after they were found buried under a concrete terrace at their home.
Mr Dupont de Ligonnès subsequently vanished, thought to have either committed suicide or fled.
Several sightings of him have been reported since, including at a convent in Doubs in the south-east of France where he was reportedly seen. A man in Scotland believed to have been Mr Dupont de Ligonnès was detained by mistake.
Seen in 2020 ‘with a black labrador’
Several theories point towards Mr Dupont de Ligonnès fleeing to the US, where he reportedly had associations with businessmen specialising in helping people relocate.
On Wednesday, Brewster County Sheriff’s Office in Texas shared a post on social media asking for witnesses to come forward.
The post states that Mr Dupont de Ligonnès had potentially been seen there in 2020.
“Xavier was possibly observed in 2020, in South Brewster County, with a black Labrador. If you have any information, please contact us.”
The county, in the western part of the state, borders Mexico.
“Easy to get lost in that neck of Texas…especially if you wanna be lost,” said one commenter on the post.
Gilles Galloux, the retired police officer who released a book earlier this year about the case claiming Mr Dupont de Ligonnès may be hiding in the US, highlighted Texas as a potential location the suspect could be and visited the area as part of his personal search for the murder suspect.
“During four trips Dupont de Ligonnès allegedly made to Alpine, Texas [prior to the 2011 murders], he met people, women," Brewster County sheriff Ronny Dodson told French media Le Télégramme.
"[Mr Galloux] came to interview these women,” he added, saying that this led to the Brewster County posting on social media to increase chances of finding Mr Dupont de Ligonnès.
According to the sheriff, one person who contacted the office reported meeting a man in the area in 2020 who was walking a black labrador and matched the description of Mr Dupont de Ligonnès. Several other reports were also made.
“This county is as big as the state of Connecticut. It’s a large, sparsely populated county, and we have a desert in the south. It’s right on the Mexican border. And, you know, in recent years, people have been hiding there. It’s an easy place to hide, with small houses, small camps, because people don’t have electricity. They run on solar power. They don’t have running water.”
However, the call for witnesses so far only concerns a local investigation.
“Neither the investigating judge assigned to the case, nor myself, nor the investigators who have been working on it from the beginning have been informed of this appeal for witnesses from a Texas police department,” said Nantes public prosecutor Antoine Leroy to the French press following the social media post.
French authorities have received over 1,700 reported sightings of Mr Dupont de Ligonnès since 2011, both in France and internationally, according to the Nantes public prosecutor’s office.
