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

[ch_13]

DNA samples taken in Dordogne murder case of Briton Karen Carter

Police hope to eliminate suspects in case of retired teacher found stabbed outside her home

www.connexionfrance.com

Police investigating the murder of British woman Karen Carter in Dordogne have reportedly taken fresh DNA samples in an effort to narrow down the list of potential suspects.
...
Around 15 individuals gave samples last week, according to sources close to the investigation. All had reportedly attended a wine-tasting event in the village of 600 residents on April 29, shortly before Mrs Carter was killed.

 

[ZaZara]

DNA samples taken in Dordogne murder case of Briton Karen Carter

Police hope to eliminate suspects in case of retired teacher found stabbed outside her home

www.connexionfrance.com

Police investigating the murder of British woman Karen Carter in Dordogne have reportedly taken fresh DNA samples in an effort to narrow down the list of potential suspects.
...
Around 15 individuals gave samples last week, according to sources close to the investigation. All had reportedly attended a wine-tasting event in the village of 600 residents on April 29, shortly before Mrs Carter was killed.

From the same article:

"From what I understand, they want to compare the DNA with that found in the victim's vehicle," he said, adding that he had undergone a test himself having been present at the evening.

BBM

I checked this with the video from France3 Nouvelle Aquitane and they speak of DNA found sur la voiture, also on the car and not necessarily in it.

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[indicolite22]

...
Around 15 individuals gave samples last week, according to sources close to the investigation. All had reportedly attended a wine-tasting event in the village of 600 residents on April 29, shortly before Mrs Carter was killed.

SBM. Did 15 people attend the wine tasting at J-F's home? I remember a much lower number from previous reports. The mayor of Tremolat was among the guests.

ETA - From earlier source (an interview with Karen's friend who was not present at the event):
Beverly (Karen's friend) was not among the six or so guests, including Karen, who attended an informal wine tasting evening at Guerrier's home on the night she died.

SECOND woman attacked in French village where British expat was killed

Yellow police tape still surrounds Karen Carter's honey-coloured stone cottage on the outskirts of Trémolat, a small village east of Bordeaux.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[indicolite22]

From the same article:


BBM

I checked this with the video from France3 Nouvelle Aquitane and they speak of DNA found sur la voiture, also on the car and not necessarily in it.

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Accept third party cookies

From the same news outlet (BBM):

Ayant participé à la soirée, l'élu s'est, lui aussi, soumis à un prélèvement ADN. “De ce que j’ai compris, ils voudraient comparer les ADN avec celui retrouvé dans le véhicule de la victime”, poursuit l’édile.

Translation:
Having attended the event, the elected official also submitted a DNA sample. "From what I understand, they want to compare the DNA with that found in the victim's vehicle," the councilor continued.

Meurtre d'une Britannique de 65 ans : une quinzaine de prélèvements ADN réalisés trois mois après la mort de Karen Carter

Dans le village de Trémolat, en Dordogne, le meurtre de karen Carter continue de hanter les habitants, en attente de réponses, après trois mois d'enquête. La semaine dernière, des prélèvements ADN ont été réalisés par les...

france3-regions.franceinfo.fr

 

[Dotta]

But...

If those attending the event were Karen's friends/acquaintances
it seems normal that their DNA might have been in the car, no?
It is customary to give a lift to a friend.
Especially in a village.

JMO

 

[Sarahlou]

But...

If those attending the event were Karen's friends/acquaintances
it seems normal that their DNA might have been in the car, no?
It is customary to give a lift to a friend.
Especially in a village.

JMO

Well, I guess it depends on what type of DNA evidence was found.

 

[ZaZara]

From the same news outlet (BBM):

Ayant participé à la soirée, l'élu s'est, lui aussi, soumis à un prélèvement ADN. “De ce que j’ai compris, ils voudraient comparer les ADN avec celui retrouvé dans le véhicule de la victime”, poursuit l’édile.

Translation:
Having attended the event, the elected official also submitted a DNA sample. "From what I understand, they want to compare the DNA with that found in the victim's vehicle," the councilor continued.

Meurtre d'une Britannique de 65 ans : une quinzaine de prélèvements ADN réalisés trois mois après la mort de Karen Carter

Dans le village de Trémolat, en Dordogne, le meurtre de karen Carter continue de hanter les habitants, en attente de réponses, après trois mois d'enquête. La semaine dernière, des prélèvements ADN ont été réalisés par les...

france3-regions.franceinfo.fr

I know. IMO, that is how mistakes and speculations come into the world.

We were told that the murder had been waiting hidden behind the bushes for Karen's return.
Karen was attacked outside her car. It makes more sense that during the altercation, this person's DNA got on outside of the car and not on the inside. That's why I opt for the report in the video and not for the text copy-pasted by other news channels.

All IMO.

 

[Dotta]

I know. IMO, that is how mistakes and speculations come into the world.

We were told that the murder had been waiting hidden behind the bushes for Karen's return.
Karen was attacked outside her car. It makes more sense that during the altercation, this person's DNA got on outside of the car and not on the inside. That's why I opt for the report in the video and not for the text copy-pasted by other news channels.

All IMO.

The perp was there at the crime scene.
Either waiting for the victim (premeditated)
Or surprised by her coming (random)

I DOUBT
it was someone from the event.

The perp probably left by car
(parked near the woods)
into thin air -
leaving the village.

JMO

 

[indicolite22]

I know. IMO, that is how mistakes and speculations come into the world.

We were told that the murder had been waiting hidden behind the bushes for Karen's return.
Karen was attacked outside her car. It makes more sense that during the altercation, this person's DNA got on outside of the car and not on the inside. That's why I opt for the report in the video and not for the text copy-pasted by other news channels.

All IMO.

But the video and the text come from the same source. We don't know which version is accurate.

Perhaps the car door was open during the attack and the perpetrator came into contact with the interior.

 

[Sarahlou]

But the video and the text come from the same source. We don't know which version is accurate.

Perhaps the car door was open during the attack and the perpetrator came into contact with the interior.

Yes, this following paragraph from a Daily Mail article would suggest that:

Her killer, who had been lying in wait, hidden by the greenery which surrounds the property, had struck so fast and so furiously that Karen's handbag – and her traumatised cross-breed puppy, Haku – were still in her Dacia Duster car.

 

[indicolite22]

The perp was there at the crime scene.
Either waiting for the victim (premeditated)
Or surprised by her coming (random)

I DOUBT
it was someone from the event.

The perp probably left by car
(parked near the woods)
into thin air -
leaving the village.

JMO

If there were 15 people at the wine tasting event, maybe they didn't all leave at the same time, so technically it could have been one of them waiting for her of following her.

 

[slowpoke]

But...

If those attending the event were Karen's friends/acquaintances
it seems normal that their DNA might have been in the car, no?
It is customary to give a lift to a friend.
Especially in a village.

JMO

So maybe if there’s a DNA that does not match any of the friends/acquaintances, it might be looked at hard.

jmo

 

[slowpoke]

SBM. Did 15 people attend the wine tasting at J-F's home? I remember a much lower number from previous reports. The mayor of Tremolat was among the guests.

ETA - From earlier source (an interview with Karen's friend who was not present at the event):
Beverly (Karen's friend) was not among the six or so guests, including Karen, who attended an informal wine tasting evening at Guerrier's home on the night she died.

SECOND woman attacked in French village where British expat was killed

Yellow police tape still surrounds Karen Carter's honey-coloured stone cottage on the outskirts of Trémolat, a small village east of Bordeaux.

www.dailymail.co.uk

That could be right that it was the smaller number of guests at the wine tasting, and the larger number of individuals’ DNA taken was all those Karen encountered throughout her day.

According to this article in the Sud Ouest, the translation says:

The mayor of Trémolat, Éric Chassagne, present at this evening, confirms that he was subjected to a DNA sample about "fifteen days ago". "I think all the people who were able to meet Karen on the day and evening of April 29 were taken," says the elected official.

 

[Dotta]

So maybe if there’s a DNA that does not match any of the friends/acquaintances, it might be looked at hard.

jmo

There was someone who hated the victim.
Hated her so much that decided to murder her.

I guess
if it was somebody from the village,
there must have been some red flags, no?
Someone must have noticed something, right?
How can one miss such hatred?

My guess is STILL the same:
- financial motive (business)
or
- random.

I doubt any melodramatic motive.
(Re poor 70 year old pensioner as former suspect.
Let's be serious!)

JMO

 

[Charlot123]

There was someone who hated the victim.
Hated her so much that decided to murder her.

I guess
if it was somebody from the village,
there must have been some red flags, no?
Someone must have noticed something, right?
How can one miss such hatred?

My guess is STILL the same:
- financial motive (business)
or
- random.

I doubt any melodramatic motive.
(Re poor 70 year old pensioner as former suspect.
Let's be serious!)

JMO

- I think that the person was known to her
- that they hated her
- that they lived not quite in the village, but more or less close to it

The murder is surprisingly suspicious to Karen becoming "independent" from her husband, and for a while i was thinking that 1) either Karen been killed at this very moment indicated financial interest, or 2) that there was a personal reason, but the separation gave someone the "pretext" to kill Karen because everyone would be looking at "the usual for such cases" suspects.

Now I added the third reason, which is the reverse of MLA's situation.

With private people like KC, relationships might start way earlier than people notice. It is not impossible that before JFG started "discreetly" stopping by KC's house in the evening, they were meeting somewhere else, and probably, kept it a good secret. In fact, JFG's habit of taking different women out to dine could serve him well. Should someone run into him and Karen, it would look like his usual chivalry. It is possible that when KC started developing interest in JFG, to external "interested" eyes it merely looked like her drifting apart from her husband without anyone in sight. Someone might have placed their own hopes too high.

Take MLA. She was living in Tremolat for many years, collected its history and for all I know, was just another local fixture. Yet now we know that KC's neighbor was of the type that could imagine a full marriage prospect out of nowhere. What if there are more people like this around us? In elementary or middle school thinking that your "secret crush" is reciprocating your feelings is normal; in adults, it is immaturity bordering on delusional thinking, but such people exist, and they may not stand out at all.

I am wondering if someone, observing Karen slowly distancing from her roots in South Africa, could have expected a full-blown relationship, and got mad when instead, KC started a courtship with a totally different person.

Karen was a social person, she was working at the Cafe, she was one of the Reignes, she attended wineries, and she probably encountered many people, and not only in Tremolat.

I wonder if leaving a car in the field close to KC's house could have been more habitual. It reminds me of BK stalking that house in Moscow, Idaho.

In short, I think it could have been a "secret admirer" who concealed their psychosis. Perhaps KC felt that a person was interested in her, but kept boundaries while being polite and gracious. However, it doesn't take much for a quietly psychotic person to imagine something totally non-existing.

"A better-adjusted BK", that is. I think the person was not quite local because there probably were prior episode of stalking someone else; if the person lived a Tremolat, it would have been known.

I wonder if the police checked the phones pinging in the vicinity of KC's house.

 

[Dotta]

- I think that the person was known to her
- that they hated her
- that they lived not quite in the village, but more or less close to it

The murder is surprisingly suspicious to Karen becoming "independent" from her husband, and for a while i was thinking that 1) either Karen been killed at this very moment indicated financial interest, or 2) that there was a personal reason, but the separation gave someone the "pretext" to kill Karen because everyone would be looking at "the usual for such cases" suspects.

Now I added the third reason, which is the reverse of MLA's situation.

With private people like KC, relationships might start way earlier than people notice. It is not impossible that before JFG started "discreetly" stopping by KC's house in the evening, they were meeting somewhere else, and probably, kept it a good secret. In fact, JFG's habit of taking different women out to dine could serve him well. Should someone run into him and Karen, it would look like his usual chivalry. It is possible that when KC started developing interest in JFG, to external "interested" eyes it merely looked like her drifting apart from her husband without anyone in sight. Someone might have placed their own hopes too high.

Take MLA. She was living in Tremolat for many years, collected its history and for all I know, was just another local fixture. Yet now we know that KC's neighbor was of the type that could imagine a full marriage prospect out of nowhere. What if there are more people like this around us? In elementary or middle school thinking that your "secret crush" is reciprocating your feelings is normal; in adults, it is immaturity bordering on delusional thinking, but such people exist, and they may not stand out at all.

I am wondering if someone, observing Karen slowly distancing from her roots in South Africa, could have expected a full-blown relationship, and got mad when instead, KC started a courtship with a totally different person.

Karen was a social person, she was working at the Cafe, she was one of the Reignes, she attended wineries, and she probably encountered many people, and not only in Tremolat.

I wonder if leaving a car in the field close to KC's house could have been more habitual. It reminds me of BK stalking that house in Moscow, Idaho.

In short, I think it could have been a "secret admirer" who concealed their psychosis. Perhaps KC felt that a person was interested in her, but kept boundaries while being polite and gracious. However, it doesn't take much for a quietly psychotic person to imagine something totally non-existing.

"A better-adjusted BK", that is. I think the person was not quite local because there probably were prior episode of stalking someone else; if the person lived a Tremolat, it would have been known.

I wonder if the police checked the phones pinging in the vicinity of KC's house.

Hmmm....
Somebody unhinged
That's for sure!

JMO

 

[Charlot123]

Hmmm....
Somebody unhinged
That's for sure!

JMO

I would hope that most of the "straightforward versions" and the most logical suspects, the LE has ruled out by now. That, sadly, leaves the version of a "quietly unhinged, but well-functioning stalker" a possibility.

 

[FromGermany1]

Imagine, you maybe have told your adult children, you just divorced your husband of decades of marriage for Monsieur JFG, because you are so in love and JFG is too. You are awaiting a new marriage and a very good life for your last years.

Karen is in the picture already, but no true threat as after all she is still married to her South African husband. Sometimes she is even absent from Tremolat because of her vacations in Africa.

Suddenly in 2025 it becomes known, that Karen is filing for divorce and sooner or later will get half of their marital assets. So Karen will be present all the time at Tremolat, will be younger (than 70), with attractive optics, fit and on top even rich - now a threat to other women, who have much less to offer.

Who wouldn't like to try to charm her, if he is a maybe slightly bored widower in a little village. So in the future JFG would be in danger for "getting a victim of a divorced Karen", and that had to be prevented with an effective resolution!

To me it sounds so logically, but it is only speculation. My second speculation would be a hitman and his client from another continent. MOO

 

[Charlot123]

Imagine, you maybe have told your adult children, you just divorced your husband of decades of marriage for Monsieur JFG, because you are so in love and JFG is too. You are awaiting a new marriage and a very good life for your last years.

Karen is in the picture already, but no true threat as after all she is still married to her South African husband. Sometimes she is even absent from Tremolat because of her vacations in Africa.

Suddenly in 2025 it becomes known, that Karen is filing for divorce and sooner or later will get half of their marital assets. So Karen will be present all the time at Tremolat, will be younger (than 70), with attractive optics, fit and on top even rich - now a threat to other women, who have much less to offer.

Who wouldn't like to try to charm her, if he is a maybe slightly bored widower in a little village. So in the future JFG would be in danger for "getting a victim of a divorced Karen", and that had to be prevented with an effective resolution!

To me it sounds so logically, but it is only speculation. My second speculation would be a hitman and his client from another continent. MOO

From all the stories, it is a rural area, but it is not like Delphi, Indiana. Surfing is there, wineries are there, life is relatively inexpensive and one might hear English as often as French. Imagine how easy it is to drive and travel there without attracting attention.

But if I were a hired killer, I would not fly from South Africa. I’d probably come to the British Isles first and then, to France.

 

[indicolite22]

I would hope that most of the "straightforward versions" and the most logical suspects, the LE has ruled out by now. That, sadly, leaves the version of a "quietly unhinged, but well-functioning stalker" a possibility.

M-LA (the local woman who was detained in connection with this case for nearly two days) left the area quite some time ago. Did the police collect her DNA beforehand?