After the identification of the body found in several pieces earlier this week in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, that of a 46-year-old woman, the police are now wondering about the role of her husband.
The murder investigation opened after the discovery, earlier this week, of a body cut into several pieces in the Parisian park of Buttes-Chaumont continues. After the body was identified on February 15 by investigators from the criminal brigade as that of Assia B., a 46-year-old woman and mother of three children living with her husband in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), the police are now questioning several inconsistencies that have emerged in her husband’s statements, according to information from BFM TV.
As a reminder, an investigation was opened for assassination by the Paris prosecutor’s office, and entrusted to the criminal brigade of the judicial police, after the discovery of a human trunk in a remote corner of the park of the 19th arrondissement of Paris on Monday February 13. Other parts of the victim’s body were then found the next day in the Buttes-Chaumont park by investigators. An autopsy was performed on Wednesday, says franceinfo. According to the first results of forensic examinations, Assia B. died of asphyxiation, reports BFMTV. However, these are only provisional results, and further analyzes should make it possible to determine with more certainty the cause of death of Assia B.
Assia B’s husband was heard by investigators on Tuesday, says BFM TV. During this discussion, several contradictions appeared in the eyes of the investigators, according to information from the media. They wonder why he waited six days before going to a police station on February 6 to report his disappearance. The husband explained this delay by the fact that he was “overwhelmed by events”, as reported by the news channel. It should also be remembered that, for the moment, the husband has not been placed in police custody, nor any other person around the victim, according to information from franceinfo. Find below the latest information on this sordid affair.
A body found in several pieces in the Buttes-Chaumont park
It is a macabre discovery which was made in the heart of the Buttes-Chaumont park, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, and which the maintenance workers did not expect. Monday, February 13, around 2:30 p.m., park pruners found, in a very remote grove, a garbage bag which contained a human trunk which went “from above the chest to the knees” according to a source from Parisian. The fatal find more precisely took place in a corner located out of sight, near the green waste warehouse reserved for gardeners, south of the park, on the rue Botzaris side. The human remains were bloody and, significantly, they were dressed, “as if surrounded by jeans”. A detail that leads the investigators to believe that “the body was cut dressed” according to a source familiar with the matter contacted by the Ile-de-France daily.
A few hours after the discovery, a search was organized in the Parc des Buttes Chaumont with dog brigades to find other parts of the victim’s body. Discoveries that were made on Tuesday, February 14, around 11 a.m., near the disused railway line which adjoins the park, according to information from the Ile-de-France daily. The victim’s head and the rest of the body were discovered. She was later identified (see below) through the analysis of fingerprints taken from her corpse, according to information from franceinfo.
Who is the victim ?
After several hours of blurring, the victim was identified on Wednesday February 15. This is Assia B., a 46-year-old woman of Algerian origin and mother of three children, according to information from BFM TV. She had no job and lived with her husband, also unemployed, in a building in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), according to a source close to the investigation contacted by franceinfowhich also indicates that the couple was not known to the police.
Heard Tuesday by the investigators, the husband of Assia B. indicated that she had gone out on the night of January 30 to 31, according to information from BFM TV. Interviewed by RTL on Wednesday, February 15, he indicated that she had then left the family home to take public transport. The husband then explained on the radio that he had not asked her specifically where she intended to go, but that she used to go to street markets in order to buy clothes which she then resold to individuals. . BFM TV indicated this Friday that, according to the first results of the medico-legal examinations which still have to be confirmed, Assia B. would have died of asphyxiation.
Who is the suspect?
If no suspect has yet been officially put forward by the investigators of the Criminal Brigade, the latter are wondering about the role of the husband of Assia B. after hearing him last Tuesday. Indeed, he told investigators that she had left the family home on the night of January 30 to 31, according to information from BFM TV. In an interview at RTL, he said he realized her disappearance on the evening of the 31st, noting that she was not returning to the family home. A search notice was then posted on social networks, and the whole family started looking for him, again according to the husband’s statements on the radio.
However, it was not until February 6 that the husband finally went to a police station to report his disappearance. An investigation for disappearance was then opened, as reported franceinfo, but she had not allowed any progress until the macabre discovery of several parts of her body in the Buttes-Chaumont park. Why did her husband wait so long to report her missing to the police? This is one of the questions that investigators are now asking, as reported BFM TV. The chain also indicates that the husband explained that he took so long because he was “overwhelmed by events”.
In addition, no CCTV camera shows that she left the building where the family apartment is located on the night of January 30 to 31, as he told investigators, the news channel said. The family home had also been searched after the body was identified as that of Assia B. During this search, the investigators did not find a new mobile phone that he had bought on January 30, indicates BFM TV, which also specifies that the investigators determined that the husband had not gone to certain places in Paris to look for his companion, as he had initially claimed. Finally, BFM TV explains that Assia B.’s sister told investigators that she had called her on January 28, telling her that she thought she was going to die soon, without giving any further explanation.