“VICTIM” RETURNS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 197, 20 August 1929, Page 12

“VICTIM” RETURNS

PUZZLE FOB THE COUBT GIRL’S FALSE CONFESSION A fantastic police case lately puzzled an investigating magistrate (or Judge d’imstruction) in Normandy (according to the Daily Chronicle). A middle-aged woman’s body, with the head cut as by an axe, was found in a river near Evreux. Though the face was unrecognisable it was thought the victim was a widow named Mussard, aged 55, who had been seen a few days earlier with her daughter, Marie Langlois, aged 24, and Marie’s sweetheart, George Potin. They were then walking towards the river where the body was later discovered.

When the police found Marie Langlois and her* friends, employed on a farm, Marie Langlois identified the body as that of her mother. Being questioned, she confessed that she and her lover had murdered her iriother. She first assaulted the woman with a small hatchet, and her lover ‘‘finished’’ the widow.

At Evreux, Marie repeated her confession to the investigating magistrate, and added that they were “ tired of supporting the old woman,” so she and her friend decided to get rid of her. Georges Potin denied any participation in the crime. Both had been in prison for three days when the investigating magistrate received a visitor he did not expect in the least. His visitor was Mme. Mussard—the supposed “murdered” woman.

She explained that she had found work in another village. Hearing that her daughter and Potin were charged with having murdered her she had come across to see the magistrate. When the magistrate sent for the two prisoners, Marie Langlois refused to explain why she had confessed to a crime which she had not committed.

Pending further inquiries and the true identification of the victim, the magistrate has decided to keep in prison the young woman and her lover, who are still officially charged with a murder which did not take place.