France - Karen Carter, 65, stabbed to death, Dordogne, 29 April 2025

[Dotta]

In the Anita Rose case (Brantham, Suffolk, UK) it appeared (trial has yet to take place) she was viciously attacked and killed by a beating by a random unhoused man as she was routinely walking her dog in the early morning.

So, someone with no history with Karen, just some random person attacking her (imo) cannot be ruled out, even though police think it was a crime of passion from someone with a grudge.

What is the area like in regards to a homeless population, I wonder. Or violent mentally ill individuals?

Not to mention
Julia James, 53, bludgeoned to death in a hamlet in Kent, UK, by a madman stranger.
For no apparent reason.



There's a thread on WS.

 

[indicolite22]

In the Anita Rose case (Brantham, Suffolk, UK) it appeared (trial has yet to take place) she was viciously attacked and killed by a beating by a random unhoused man as she was routinely walking her dog in the early morning.

So, someone with no history with Karen, just some random person attacking her (imo) cannot be ruled out, even though police think it was a crime of passion from someone with a grudge.

What is the area like in regards to a homeless population, I wonder. Or violent mentally ill individuals?

Would a random person carry a knife? I doubt that a random crazed person (armed with a knife) stumbled upon her when she arrived home in the late evening.

 

[Dotta]

Would a random person carry a knife? I doubt that a random crazed person (armed with a knife) stumbled upon her when she arrived home in the late evening.

Carrying a knife? Sure.

"...the village is frequented by boar hunters
armed with butchering knives..."

Brit mum killed in French village told pal divorce plan night before death

THE Brit mum brutally stabbed to death outside her French home revealed to a friend she was filing for divorce the night before her murder. The who-dunnit case of Karen Carter, 65, continues after …

www.thesun.co.uk

 

[slowpoke]

Would a random person carry a knife? I doubt that a random crazed person (armed with a knife) stumbled upon her when she arrived home in the late evening.

Of course it would be a rare occurrence, but it is not unheard of.

Here is a case that happened just last month, in the US.

'Why me?': Tourist randomly attacked by man armed with knife, officials say

A young woman is recovering from a brutal, random knife attack that took place outside a gas station on John Young Parkway in Orange County.

www.yahoo.com

 

[kiwi50]

Was Karen’s ex neighbour, who was supposedly in love with JF, at the same wine tasting event as Karen or was she at the cafe.
Should be easy enough to prove when she supposedly arrived home, whether it was before or after Karen’s body was found.

 

[Cedars]

I think, if people are going to cite other cases as potentially similar to this murder, they need to at least choose cases that have similar circumstances (and not just a female victim).

- victim killed right outside her home
- apparently attacked as soon as she got out of her car (so either trusted the person, or did not see them)
- was killed by 5 potentially fatal stab wounds
- almost two weeks later and no arrest

If you can find a case where a random homeless person was hanging out down someone's driveway in front of their house and, and randomly attacked them with a knife - and escaped capture for almost two weeks, that could be quite relevant.

JmO

 

[Teche]

Carrying a knife? Sure.

"...the village is frequented by boar hunters
armed with butchering knives..."

Brit mum killed in French village told pal divorce plan night before death

THE Brit mum brutally stabbed to death outside her French home revealed to a friend she was filing for divorce the night before her murder. The who-dunnit case of Karen Carter, 65, continues after …

www.thesun.co.uk

I live in South Louisiana where wild boars are plentiful. The boars are shot and killed by hunters. The knives are to prepare the meat for cooking and/or freezing. I can't imagine a boar keeping still to be killed by a knife.

 

[Cedars]

I live in South Louisiana where wild boars are plentiful. The boars are shot and killed by hunters. The knives are to prepare the meat for cooking and/or freezing. I can't imagine a boar keeping still to be killed by a knife.

So, are you saying that when a stabbing assault occurs in your area, police don't always assume it must have been a boar hunter that did it?

Perhaps there are even people with knives who are not boar hunters? Like, maybe, people who cook French style food?

 

[Charlot123]

And yet, she was very clearly choosing not to live with with him, or to visit him, or even wait until he came to visit to choose a cottage with him...

I'm not arguing that he was treating her badly.

They were supposedly married and clearly, she was behaving as though she weren't married and hadn't been for a long time, which he seems to have gone along with (or perhaps it was vice versa, or mutual).

What keeps such a long-distance / separate lives marriage together (once children are grown)?
IMO: 1. Money, because one person has it and the other depends on them for it and 2. Values that are strongly anti-divorce, perhaps even ''till death do us part".

Another opinion: where there's a will, there's a way.

JMO, MOO. Maybe it was less of a conflict between the two people and more the fact that KC wholeheartedly grew into Gaullic countryside, and AC, essentially, never did? Alan was an urbanist pretending that he liked rustic barns, but trying to bolt at the first opportunity. I think that outwardly, he tried, buyed the house to settle, but inside, dreaded living in a village of 600 people. And KC, on the contrary, felt like "i know i lived here in my past life". Then it is less about "what keeps people together" and more that they are unwilling to see the obvious.

I wonder if COVID was the turning point? Karen realized how happy she was in Tremolat, and Alan, the opposite?

Everyone describes KC as a strong businesswoman. I wonder if she developed these qualities because it was the only pathway for her to stay in Trémolat forever.
I see her braching out business as the wish to become independent. Not because of another man, but because of her love for rural France. The new man I view more like the symptom than the cause.

 

[Teche]

So, are you saying that when a stabbing assault occurs in your area, police don't always assume it must have been a boar hunter that did it?

Perhaps there are even people with knives who are not boar hunters? Like, maybe, people who cook French style food?

The wild boars in our area are large, heavy, feisty, and fast. I've never heard of a boar staying around for a hunter to kill one with a knife. During a recent hurricane, my son’s newly sodded 2-acre lawn was rooted and destroyed overnight by a small family of boars.

 

[iamshadow21]

The wild boars in our area are large, heavy, feisty, and fast. I've never heard of a boar staying around for a hunter to kill one with a knife. During a recent hurricane, my son’s newly sodded 2-acre lawn was rooted and destroyed overnight by a small family of boars.

Doesn't surprise me. The two live uses for pigs (that don't involve turning them into bacon, etc.) are truffle hunting and as nonmechanical field preparers. They'll turn over the sod wherever they're pastured or penned (or wherever they roam, if wild).

And wild boars aren't anything you'd just walk up to with a knife. They were rightly feared by humans for thousands of years. They're more than capable of eviscerating a person who disturbs them. However, if you've shot one, you'd need a knife to field dress it/butcher it.

MOO

 

[Teche]

So, are you saying that when a stabbing assault occurs in your area, police don't always assume it must have been a boar hunter that did it?

Perhaps there are even people with knives who are not boar hunters? Like, maybe, people who cook French style food?

In our area, LE wouldn't be searching for a knife-yielding boar hunter who’s involved in a stabbing. In my area, many families have numerous guns and knives in their possession. Most of the guys carry knives on their person. My husband has never hunted and always a folding knife and has a pistol. I don't know any family that doesn't have a firearm or two. I remember that a while ago it was common to see pickup trucks with gun racks on school campuses. Our area is knowned for hunting, fishing, and trapping. The knives are frequently used to dress the kill and cut bait.

 

[indicolite22]

Could the police know the size/type of a knife used in the attack without finding it?

 

[Sjöberg]

What is the area like in regards to a homeless population, I wonder. Or violent mentally ill individuals?

Tremolat is a village of 600 people. IMO, it is unelikely there are any homeless people there and in any case homeless people are usually not dangerous. OECD has a rather recent paper mapping multi-dimensional well-being and poverty in France - on the long list of multi-dimensionally poor communes, the Dordogne department is not represented with any communes at all. The area in general is popular with British immigrants and more of an an idyllic French countryside example that is popular for vacations.

However, there can of course be seriously mentlly ill people - once again though, in a village of 600 people, if they have anyone that is dangerous due to mental health, the locals know about it, and the police knows by now. Of course that does not mean, that we would know.

While I am not ruling out a random attack just yet (weirder things have happened and attacking rich expats is not unheard of), the crime feels targeted to me, mostly because of the time and place of the attack.

 

[Dotta]

Isn't this tragedy
a classic whodunnit puzzle?

From AI

"...closed-off setting,
a set of plausible suspects,
the presence of red herrings,

and...

a surprising, often unexpected,
twist at the end."

JMO

 

[slowpoke]

I think, if people are going to cite other cases as potentially similar to this murder, they need to at least choose cases that have similar circumstances (and not just a female victim).

- victim killed right outside her home
- apparently attacked as soon as she got out of her car (so either trusted the person, or did not see them)
- was killed by 5 potentially fatal stab wounds
- almost two weeks later and no arrest

If you can find a case where a random homeless person was hanging out down someone's driveway in front of their house and, and randomly attacked them with a knife - and escaped capture for almost two weeks, that could be quite relevant.

JmO

Oh, ok. Noted.

 

[Charlot123]

SBM. The neighbor saw her walking the dog earlier in the day. This neighbor likely didn't see/hear her arriving home from her evening out.

At least that's what they say.
I wonder where the bloodied trail led to.
One way, if there is a bike, and a lake nearby. Just bike to the lake, wash oneself and...still, one has to have a home in the vicinity, I think.

 

[Mayb]

Karen reportedly was popular and well known in the village. If she was stalked by another resident perhaps that resident was upset by her new relationship. Perhaps.
Lots of guesswork at this point !
So so sad. Just awful. Deepest condolences to Karen's family and friends.

 

[Charlot123]

I wonder if Google street maps from certain days could be helpful?

 

[Mayb]

At least that's what they say.
I wonder where the bloodied trail led to.
One way, if there is a bike, and a lake nearby. Just bike to the lake, wash oneself and...still, one has to have a home in the vicinity, I think.

... and JMO. My money's on neither Mme Autefort nor Karen's husband as the perpetrator here.
Not J-F. Mme Autefort's been naive; Alan Carter's feeling wounded, angry and hurt.

I wonder if another person was watching her, and she was perhaps unaware of this.