Man Murders This Family, Then Goes on Vacation
On April 11th, 2011, the police dug up the bodies of Agnès, Arthur, Thomas, Anne, and Benoît Dupont de Ligonnès in their backyard. The only person missing was the father and husband, Xavier.
A Normal Family
It all started when Xavier met Angès when they were twenty and eighteen years old, respectively. They fell in love, but Xavier was not ready to settle down. The two split and he traveled for a while before coming back and discovering that Agnès had become pregnant with another man’s child. Nonetheless, the two were married when the child, Arthur, was two years old. Soon after, Xavier adopted him and gave him his last name. This was highly controversial at the time, as Xavier was raised in high-class, aristocratic circles. Despite this, the two built a family together anyway.
The family lived a very normal life in Nantes, France in an upper-middle class neighborhood, unbeknownst to everyone, the family was having problems. Since 2002, Agnès and Xavier had been having marital problems which were later exacerbated when the family began to have money problems as well. Not only that, but in 2005, Angès filed a police report against her husband for reportedly assaulting Arthur.
Despite his upbringing, Xavier did not create a steady career for himself and the family had relied on Agnès’ family inheritance since the two were married in 1990, but in 2011, the money was running out.
The situation got so desperate that Xavier turned to his mistress and borrowed fifty thousand euros from her. In an email he wrote to her in 2010, he talked about his desperation and how he thought about giving his family sleeping pills and burning their house down, or even killing himself so that his family would get his life insurance of six hundred thousand euros. Somehow however, it gets worse, as he said that his life would end in a few months anyway, sparing him from his nightmarish life. He knew he had to do something radical and something final.
The Plan
In January of 2011, Xavier’s father passed away. While searching through his belongings, he found his father’s old rifle. It was a .22 long rifle, of which he immediately started to use fairly often. Xavier had never shown much of an interest in guns before, but ended up getting his gun license in February, one month later. It is much more difficult to obtain a gun in France than it is in the U.S. In France, it required him being affiliated with a shooting range, having a minimum of three lessons with an instructor, and having a certificate assuring the individual’s mental and physical health.
After getting his license, he began taking his sons to the shooting range with him, and in March, he bought a silencer for the rifle. Over the next few weeks, he bought very curious items from a number of stores. Xavier bought cement, a shovel, a hoe, chalk lime, bullets, cleaning supplies, and garbage bags. He made arrangements like his family was making a big move and paid off some debts.
The Kills
Things became publicly weird on April 1st when Arthur did not show up at his job to receive his paycheck, which was unusual for him. But nothing seemed out of the ordinary two days later when the family was seen out at a restaurant, looking like they were having a nice time. April 3rd was the last time that Anne, aged 16, and Beoît, aged 13 were seen alive.
Thomas was last seen on April 5th, out for dinner with his father, but the two hardly spoke and Thomas felt ill for most of the meal.
Angès’ timeline is more unclear. Eyewitnesses said that they saw her on April 5th as well, and some even account to April 7th, though police don’t believe that these dates are accurate.
The children’s schools as well as their and Agnès’ employers received a letter on April 11th saying that the family was suddenly moving to Australia for Xavier’s work. Relatives also received a bizarre note, supposedly from Xavier, saying he was undercover for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, and that he and his family had to relocate to the U.S. because his cover was blown. He said that they would not be in contact for a long time (years) and that they had to keep all of this a secret. Still, he encouraged them to spread the “moving to Australia'' story, as that was their cover.
Everyone was very confused by this, and even more so, convinced that the family wouldn’t just up and leave without saying goodbye to their friends and loved ones.
The note was brought to the police and on April 13th, a concerned neighbor said that they hadn’t seen the family come in or out of the house in the past few days.
The police went to the house, and everything seemed normal. It looked like they had decided to leave voluntarily.
The police went to the house a total of six times and on April 21st, three weeks later, they found the bodies buried in the backyard.
There were two graves, one with Angès, Arthur, Anne, and Benoît and in the second grave, alone, was Thomas. They were all wrapped in blankets and the children all had taken sleeping pills and had two shots to the backs of their heads. Agnès had no such sleeping pills but police suspect that she was also asleep when he shot her as well. Even the two family dogs were shot and buried.
The Search
The next day, the police began to search for him, but with no luck; he had a three week head start.
He left a fairly obvious trail to the southeast of France, but then on April 15th, he completely disappeared. Some believe that he killed himself in the nearby mountains, but searches were done and they never found a body.
Over the years there have been sightings of him, but they never have led to anything. Most think that he is dead, but there is no proof of that. For all anyone knows, he’s still out there.