The 33-year-old father, who allegedly murdered on Christmas Eve his wife and their four children at their home, not far from Paris, “at a very violent crime scene” and was arrested today Tuesday near where the events unfolded and appears to be suffering from psychiatric problems.

At around 9pm on Monday, law enforcement rushed to the family’s residence on the ground floor of a block of flats after being tipped off by acquaintances of the victims, Meaux (40km east of Paris) prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Blandier told reporters today. .

Traces of blood were visible on the landing. Inside, “at the crime scene, very violent,” five bodies were discovered: the 35-year-old mother and her four children, a 10-year-old girl, a second 7-year-old girl, a 4-year-old boy and a 9-month-old infant, he explained. Bladier.

“The mother and the two girls received a very large number of knives”, impossible to calculate, he explained. No visible signs of injury were found on the boys, for whom authorities are considering a suffocation or drowning scenario. The post-mortem examination will be held tomorrow Wednesday in Paris.

According to a police source, confirmed by the prosecutor, the review of traffic surveillance videos allowed the suspect to be identified.

The 33-year-old, of French nationality, was arrested in Sevran (a suburb of Paris), at his father’s house. He said he “knows why he was taken into custody, talked about his personal hardships and his depression,” according to the prosecutor.

He had previously stabbed his wife

As of 2017, he was being monitored for psychiatric disorders and depression. In his house found prescriptions for sedatives.

From research a history of domestic violence was revealed between the 33-year-old man and the 35-year-old woman who became a couple 14 years ago and were married in October 2023. The criminal record of the perpetrator “is devoid of any precedent”, the prosecutor underlined.

In November 2019, the father had stabbed his wife in the shoulder blade, while she was in the first month of her pregnancy. The victim, who was born in Haiti, had refused to press charges, saying she did not want help from an organization that helps victims of domestic violence.

An investigation had been launched and the husband had been taken into custody before being admitted to a psychiatric hospital. He claimed that he did not want to harm his beloved partner: “The knife went away by itself,” had stated characteristics, as the prosecutor said.

The case had been shelved due to psychiatric disability, Blandieu explained.

The mother of the family was “a very good person, known to everyone, very cheerful. She lived for her family. The man was not working, she was supporting her family,” Nadine Coulibaly, the friend and neighbor who alerted the authorities, told reporters.

On average, a femicide takes place every three days in France: 118 women were murdered last year by their partner or ex-partner.