He answers in great detail but “does not explain” his “barbarity”. In a court in the Paris region, a 70-year-old pensioner gave a long account on Wednesday of the murder of his companion, whose body was found dismembered and charred in a wood in 2017.
On August 31, 2017, pieces of burned bodies were discovered on a pedestrian path in Vernouillet, regarding forty kilometers west of Paris.
It will take almost two years for investigators to identify them, in May 2019: the victim is a 67-year-old woman, reported missing by her companion on October 16, 2017.
On the day of the crime, she had “gone into a delirious phase”, says the accused, and would have tried to strangle him during a “scuffle”. He says he then “grabbed his throat” in return.
“Then I no longer felt his breath (…) I had a moment of amazement. I did not call the Samu. I did not do the first aid gestures, ”he continues.
“Have you thought regarding calling the police?” asks the president.
“I made a choice. I mightn’t bear to lose my family’s respect. I made a choice, I made the wrong choice. (…) The choice to make the body of my companion disappear”, repeats Philippe Marchand.
The accused explained that he used a knife and a saw to dismember the victim’s body, “a horrible operation which lasted almost four hours”, he says.
Philippe Marchand sighs, says his “remorse”. “It shocked me a lot what I did. I have never been violent, I have always been respectful, especially towards women. I cannot explain this barbarism.
In a black sweater in the box, his hand clutching the microphone, the former taxi driver recounted at length the romantic relationship he had had since the end of 2015 with this “kind” and “elegant” woman, of whom he had “fallen under the charm immediately ”, following the libertine evening during which he had met her.
They had moved in together a few months later. “It was idyllic the first few weeks and then it very quickly degenerated, because of her behavior”, explains the accused, who describes her as “very jealous” and suffering from “hysteriform disorders”.
“Hysterical? No. I always thought that she was depressed,” said the victim’s son in the morning, questioned on this term by the court.
Several times hospitalized, the sexagenarian suffered from “depressive recurrences”, according to an expert.
Monday at the bar, a policewoman said that the accused, following reporting the disappearance of his companion, had called his service several times to inquire regarding the follow-up to the investigation.
Mr. Marchand also admitted to having sent text messages from the victim’s phone to himself and to members of his family following his death.
The retiree is also suspected of having used the victim’s bank accounts for more than a year, from which more than 28,000 euros were debited.
A friend of the accused, who had been seeing him “for 60 years”, had described on Monday a man who had liked since his retirement “to change women, to have extra-marital relations”. He added that he had been, at the time of his arrest, “surprised and horrified by the facts”.
According to the investigation, Philippe Marchand had a relationship with another woman from July 2016. Calling himself several times “in love” with the victim, he also explained that she wanted to “capture” him.
The verdict is expected Friday.
