Portuguese judge orders pre-trial detention of French man suspected of double homicide

By Miguel Pereira

GUARDA, Portugal, March 27 (Reuters) – A Portuguese judge has ordered the pre-trial detention of a French ex-police officer suspected of killing his partner and former partner whose bodies were found buried in a remote area in the country’s north.

The High Council for the Judiciary, in a statement on Thursday, named the man as 41-year-old Cedric Prizzon from France’s southern Aveyron region. It identified the deceased as Audry Cavalier and Angela Cadillac.

Prizzon was stopped by traffic police near Meda, northeastern Portugal, on Tuesday and presented documents police believed to be forged, the National Republican Guard (GNR) said in a statement.

He was accompanied by two children, aged around 12 and under two, and is thought to have recently driven to Portugal from France, a police source said.

A vehicle search uncovered an unlicensed firearm and about 17,000 euros ($19,650) in cash, the Criminal Police (PJ) said in a separate statement.

Checks indicated the detainee had been flagged as a suspect in a kidnapping and double homicide case, the PJ said.

The bodies of two women – the man’s partner and former partner – were found by investigators buried in a remote area on Wednesday morning, the PJ said.

The High Council for the Judiciary said Prizzon is “strongly suspected” of kidnapping and killing Cavalier, as well as murdering Cadillac, and of desecrating both bodies. It did not disclose which woman was his partner at their time of death.

It said a judge at Vila Nova de Foz Coa Court in northern Portugal ordered Prizzon to remain in pre-trial detention and suspended his parental rights.

The judge also prohibited him from contacting the two children by any means, “including telephone, social media, email, written messages, or through third parties.”

Nicolas Rigot-Muller, a prosecutor in Rodez in southern France, said in an email to reporters on Sunday that an investigation had been opened into the suspected kidnapping and unlawful confinement of a woman and her 13-year-old son who disappeared from their home in Vailhourles in the Aveyron region on March 19. The suspect was the woman’s former partner.

The suspect’s current partner was also missing, the prosecutor said.

On Thursday, Rigot-Muller said he was no longer in charge of the investigation and declined to comment further.

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(Reporting by Miguel Pereira, Sergio Goncalves and David Latona; Additional reporting by Makini Brice in Paris; Writing by David Latona; Editing by Aislinn Laing, Keith Weir and Christopher Cushing)