French police have revealed how a British couple died, days after their bodies were found at their home in a rural village in France.
Andrew Searle, 62 and his 56-year-old wife, Dawn Kerr, were found at 12:20 pm on Thursday at their home in the quiet southern French hamlet of Les Pesquiès, south of Villefranche-de-Rouergue.
Results of a post-mortem carried out on Monday revealed that Ms Kerr died after having received “several blows to the head using a blunt or sharp object”, whilst Mr Searle died as a result of hanging.
Ms Kerr’s body showed no signs of sexual assault and Mr Searl “did not show any visible defensive injuries”.
French prosecutors said in a statement that police inquiries were ongoing to determine whether the couple died as a result of a murder-suicide, or if a third party was involved.
The statement said other tests, including toxicology, are currently ongoing.
A neighbour of the British couple found Ms Kerr lying dead in front of her house, “partly undressed”, and called the emergency services at 12.27, prosecutors said.
As they entered, emergency services found the body of Mr Searle hanged inside the house.
Investigators have not ruled out that the retired couple were murdered for “financial motives”.
The prosecutor in charge of the case, Nicolas Rigot-Muller, said: “Investigators are not prioritising any lead between the theory of a domestic crime followed by a suicide, or that of a double homicide carried out by a third party, linked either to a financial motive or the deceased’s past.”
Mr Searle was a former fraud investigator and detectives are reportedly looking into whether gangsters with a “score to settle” may have been behind the killings.
According to his LinkedIn page, Mr Searle specialised in financial crime prevention who worked at companies including Standard Life and Barclays Bank.
Mr Searle took an early retirement in 2015, after which he is believed to have run into financial troubles when his rental business was forced into liquidation in 2023.
A jewellery box was found near Ms Kerr’s body, but no item or weapon which could have caused the injuries was located. Cash was also found in the couple’s bedroom.
