A British woman was found beaten to death at her home in southwestern France, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.
A friend found the 65-year-old woman lying near her vehicle with five deep wounds caused by a blunt object at her home in the village of Tremolat in the Dordogne on Tuesday evening, state prosecutor Sylvie Martins Guedes said in a statement.
Authorities have opened a murder investigation, she added.
‘Her wounds indicated a particularly violent attack and their locations showed an intention to kill,’ the statement continued. ‘Investigations are underway to identify and detain the perpetrator of this crime.’
The statement said the woman, who as a member of the Reines du Foot team, a group of women over 50 who participated in the Grandma’s World Cup in South Africa in early April, had lived in the Dordogne department for several years.
According to the Bergerac prosecutor’s office, the mother-of-four suffered multiple wounds to her chest, groin, arm, and leg.
‘In front of the house in Trémolat, we can still see a large trace of blood which testifies to the violence of the blows inflicted on this woman,’ Francebleu reported.
Speaking to French news outlet Sud Ouest, a neighbour that lives across the street from the victim said: ‘I closed the shutters around 9pm, everything was calm.
‘But at 11pm, I saw a lot of flashing lights with the emergency services. The police then rang my doorbell around midnight to see if I had noticed anything suspicious, but I didn’t see or hear anything.’
The victim had been part of a football team of women aged over 50 who trained between Calès and Trémolat.
She was one of 18 players who left for South Africa less than a month ago to participate in the Grandma’s World Cup, reports Francebleu.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
