Decapitated man in Vaucluse: the interned grandson, the psychiatric track is confirmed

Europe 1 with AFP 5:56 p.m., October 21, 2021

The 37-year-old man suspected of having beheaded his 85-year-old grandfather in Vaucluse was under long-term psychiatric follow-up and was interned after his arrest, the Carpentras prosecutor said on Thursday. 'a press conference.

The suspect's state of mental health "was not compatible with a custody measure"

The suspect's state of mental health "was not compatible with a custody measure," said the prosecutor, Pierre Gagnoud. Wednesday, after an arrest "without incident", "he was hospitalized at the psychiatric hospital of Monfavet (Avignon), under guard," he added. The prosecutor did not give any information on the reasons which pushed this man, whose identity was not revealed, to kill his grandfather in Bollène (Vaucluse), to behead him and to inflict him very significant chest lesions.

But he drew up a first robot portrait of the suspect, arrested shortly before midnight in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, in the Drôme, "two kilometers from the place where the facts occurred".

Bare-chested and barefoot, "haggard", the man had knocked on a couple's window to ask for food and drink, which had enabled the police, deployed in force, to stop him. quickly.

He was unarmed and made no resistance, said the prosecutor, according to whom the man had been able to "hide" for several hours in this area near the cave village of Barry.

The suspect had been under psychiatric follow-up for many years

"The first elements of the investigation seem to establish that the individual had been the subject of psychiatric monitoring for many years", with several compulsory internships, as well as home monitoring, explained Pierre Gagnoud. "The judicial information that will be opened will have to retrace the chronology of his care over the last years, to measure the degree of responsibility at the time of the facts," he added.

The man, whose grandfather was a "support", did not have a criminal record but several procedures attest to "use of narcotics", also indicated the prosecutor of Carpentras, who had ruled out on Wednesday evening the terrorist trail.

"We will know more after the autopsy on the type of utensil, weapon, used to take the life of the victim, but also to attack her under the conditions mentioned", he also indicated.

A week ago, on October 13, a septuagenarian was found beheaded in her house in the seaside resort of Agde, in Hérault.

A suspect was indicted for murder a few days later: the 51-year-old man was the former husband of the victim's housekeeper.