The Dupont de Ligonnès murders and disappearance also known as the "Nantes massacre" (French: tuerie de Nantes) involved the murder of five members of the same family in Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, France, followed by the disappearance of the patriarch of the family, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. His wife, Agnès Dupont de Ligonnès, and their four children, Arthur, Thomas, Anne, and Benoît, along with the family's two dogs, were killed on an undetermined day in early April 2011. Their bodies were found buried in their garden on April 21. Xavier disappeared at the same time and has not been found. The exact nature of the events has never been determined, but Xavier is considered the prime suspect in the murders. Since the investigation began, he is targeted by an unpublished blue notice (witness) of Interpol.
The Dupont de Ligonnès murders and disappearance also known as the "Nantes massacre" (French: tuerie de Nantes) involved the murder of five members of the same family in Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, France, followed by the disappearance of the patriarch of the family, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. His wife, Agnès Dupont de Ligonnès, and their four children, Arthur, Thomas, Anne, and Benoît, along with the family's two dogs, were killed on an undetermined day in early April 2011. Their bodies were found buried in their garden on April 21. Xavier disappeared at the same time and has not been found. The exact nature of the events has never been determined, but Xavier is considered the prime suspect in the murders. Since the investigation began, he is targeted by an unpublished blue notice (witness) of Interpol.
Background
The Dupont de Ligonnès family was an aristocratic family originally from Annonay, in the Vivarais region in south-eastern France. Ancestors include Édouard du Pont de Ligonnès (1797–1877), who married Sophie de Lamartine, sister of the poet Alphonse de Lamartine, and whose youngest son, Charles du Pont de Ligonnès, became the Bishop of Rodez.
Xavier Pierre Marie Dupont de Ligonnès (born 9 January 1961 in Versailles) is the son of Bernard-Hubert Dupont de Ligonnès (7 November 1931 – 20 January 2011), an engineer with a degree from the École nationale supérieure de mécanique et d'aérotechnique in Poitiers; his mother was Geneviève Thérèse Maître. Xavier's professional activities were very vague, but he is described as a salesman by a source close to the inquiry. Xavier created several businesses with limited success, most of which catered to travelling salespeople and restaurant guests. One business based in Pornic, called SELREF, had a secretive and ambiguously defined purpose. The company's 2006 accounts, accessible through a public commercial website, only show the bare minimum information, and the last data pertaining to the company was filed with the French Register of Commerce on 24 February 2004. As manager of SELREF, Xavier hired six salespeople in 2003 and released them all shortly afterwards.
Xavier's wife, Agnès Hodanger, was born on 9 November 1962 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris. She was an assistant at Blanche-de-Castille Catholic School in Nantes, where part of her duties involved teaching catechism. Agnès was described as being very religious, regularly attending Mass with her children. Parishioners described her as being kind but strict with the children. In 2004, writing on the French online medical chat forum Doctissimo, Agnès described the difficulties she and her husband were having and stated he had commented to her that a group death as a family would not be a catastrophe.
At the time of the murders, Xavier and Agnès lived at 55 Boulevard Robert Schuman in Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, in a modest house in the western suburbs of the city.
Children
Arthur Dupont de Ligonnès
Arthur Nicolas Dupont de Ligonnès was born on 7 July 1990 to another father, but was recognised by Xavier as his son when he married Agnès when Arthur was two years old. He earned a baccalauréat in Science, Industrial Technology and Sustainable Development at the age of 20. He was studying for a technical diploma in IT at the Saint-Gabriel private college in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre in the Vendée department, an hour's drive from Nantes. He was also employed as a waiter at a pizzeria in Nantes. He was 20 years old at the time of his death.
Thomas
Thomas Dupont de Ligonnès was born on 28 August 1992 in Draguignan, in the south of France. He earned a baccalauréat in Literature when he was 17. He was passionate about music and studied it at the Catholic University of the West in Angers. He lived in the Saint-Aubin hall of residence and was described as an "ordinary boy who was often accompanied by his family to drop him off and pick him up", while several of his classmates remember him as "very discreet". He was 18 years old at the time of his death.
Anne
Anne Dupont de Ligonnès was born on 2 August 1994 in Draguignan. She was in the 11th grade following an academic curriculum in Science, and was described by her friends and relatives as a girl who shared her mother's religious beliefs and was considerate and approachable. Her friends became concerned when she was regularly offline and did not answer calls. Anne was 16 years old at the time of her death.
Benoît
Benoît Dupont de Ligonnès was born on 29 May 1997, Xavier and Agnès's youngest child. He was an altar server at Saint-Félix Church in Nantes. He was 13 years old at the time of his death.
Timeline
Family's final actions
The lease on the house had been terminated.
All bank accounts had been closed.
The children's school received a final payment settlement.
Xavier phoned Agnès's employer to inform them she was suffering from gastroenteritis. Two days later, the employer received a text saying Agnès had been hospitalised and couldn't be contacted by phone. The following week, the employer received a letter from Agnès terminating her employment and explaining she was following her husband to Australia.
A message was placed on their letter box: "Return all mail to sender. Thank you."
The house had been partially emptied.
Xavier had bought cement, a shovel and a hoe.
March 2011
Xavier purchased rifle bullets on 12 March.
Xavier registered at the Charles Des Jamonières shooting range to the north of Nantes, which he visited four times between 26 March and 1 April. He obtained his firearms licence on 2 February 2011. Thomas and Benoît had also started to learn how to shoot, while Arthur was scheduled to start.
A sales receipt from a DIY store was found at the family home. The store is located in Saint-Maur in the central French department of Indre, approximately 320 kilometres (200 miles) from Nantes, a 3.5-hour drive away. The receipt was dated to a Wednesday in late March – either the 23rd or the 30th – and listed several purchases, including a roll of large bin liners and a box of adhesive plastic paving slabs.
April 2011
Arthur, the oldest child, leaves the college where he was studying and does not turn up at the pizzeria where he worked and was due to go to pick up his monthly wages. His boss is surprised by this, stating that Arthur always came to collect his wages on the first day of the month.
Xavier buys four bags of lime, 10 kg each, from different shops in the Nantes area.
A neighbour, Fabrice, sees Agnès for the last time. Shortly afterwards, he sees Xavier "putting large bags into his car", a Citroën C5.
The couple and three of the children dine in a restaurant in Nantes, then go to the cinema.
At 10.37 pm, Xavier leaves a message on his sister Christine's voicemail: "We spent our Sunday evening in the cinema together, then in a restaurant, and we've just got back – I'm just calling to ask if it's too late to speak to you on the phone and now I see it's gone to voicemail. But ... I was surprised, you spoke to me about Bertram, who's getting ready for his flight?! Huh?! But ... I thought he'd only just arrived! ... So I was a bit surprised. Anyway, sending you my love ... If it's not too late, call me back or send me a text and I'll call you. OK, I'm going to put the kids to bed, say hi to everyone. See you soon! ... Maybe ...". The recording of the actual message was released publicly in September 2019.
Anne and Benoît do not turn up at their school, La Perverie-Sacré-Cœur, "due to illness". Anne and Benoît's friends become concerned when they are unable to reach them. They remember a rumour about the family leaving for Australia where their father had been given a job transfer, and they find it suspicious that their friends hadn't told them about this "departure". They attempt to contact Benoît and Anne online and by text.
Xavier speaks with his sister, Christine de Ligonnès, on the telephone for 20 to 30 minutes. She said that everything seemed normal.
Xavier dines with his son Thomas at La Croix Cadeau, a high-end restaurant in Avrillé, near Angers. The pair arrived at about 9 pm. Xavier ordered a €35 tasting menu with half a bottle of Anjou-villages-brissac red wine; Thomas had a sea bass dish and a tomato juice. The total bill for the meal came to €72.55. The two waiters remember Thomas feeling unwell near the end of the meal, and that Xavier and Thomas barely spoke to each other during the meal.
Investigators believe that Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès murdered his wife and three of his children on the night of 3 to 4 April, then murdered his son Thomas on the evening of 5 April.
A bailiff comes to the family home to recover a debt of €20,000, but no one answers the door.
The family's neighbours dispute Agnès's stated date of death. They have claimed that she was seen in front of her house on 5 April around 12.15 or 12.30 pm, and again on 7 April. The prosecutor in Nantes acknowledged that forensic experts were unable to narrow the exact date of death down to a specific day. In addition, an employee of a hairdressing salon near the house claimed on RTL to have seen Agnès on Tuesday 5 April. The employee stated, "I came to pick up my wages. It was a Tuesday, it was 5 April. I needed my wages. I saw her on the pavement on her phone around 12.15 or 12.30."
A friend of Thomas', who studied music with him, confirmed that Thomas spent Tuesday afternoon with him at the friend's home in Angers, where they played music and watched television. Thomas had planned to spend the night at his friend's house, but Xavier phoned his son, asking him to return to Nantes, as his mother had been involved in a "cycling accident". Thomas ate quickly with his friend, then took a train home at around 10 pm. The following day, the friend tried to reach Thomas, but only received brief text messages in reply, such as "I'm not coming to yours. I'm ill" and "Really ill, I'm not coming to class". Two days after Thomas's departure, his friend received a text: "I'm out of battery, my dad's looking for a new charger for me." This is the last that Thomas's friend heard from him or anyone else in the family. Pauline, Thomas's ex-girlfriend and classmate, remembers him as a "light-hearted, cheerful and happy guy". She stated that they didn't date for long and described her ex-boyfriend as "a really nice guy who always listened to what you had to say ... very close to his brothers, sister, mother and father ... passionate about music and cinema." She also stated that she had spoken to him on Facebook on Tuesday 5 April while he was at his friend's house, and that he had seemed "odd in his way of writing" when he told her his father told him his mother had been in a cycling accident and that Thomas had to return home that same evening. Furthermore, the day before (Monday 4 April), she had noticed that he seemed "lonely" and had told her that he "would skip classes on Wednesday to come to a music rehearsal," but he did not turn up at the rehearsal, which was "not like him".
During this week, neighbours heard the family dogs howling for two consecutive nights and then never heard them again.
Arthur's girlfriend, who is concerned after not having heard from him, knocks on the door of the family home, where "a light was on on the first floor", but the family's two Labrador Retrievers do not bark when she knocks.
Xavier is seen making several return trips from the house to his car, loading the car with large bags. A neighbour also claims to have spoken to Agnès on this day: "On 7 April, I saw Agnès walking her dog. We spoke briefly, then I cut our chat short because I had an important appointment."
This same neighbour spoke to RTL on condition of anonymity, saying "the newspapers say the autopsies put her death on the 4th [April], but I'm almost convinced I saw her on the evening of Thursday the 7th because I know I didn't have much time to speak to her as I pick up my son from the childminder every Thursday evening."
A report by Anne-Sophie Martin on the programme Envoyé spécial ("Special Correspondent"), which was broadcast on the channel France 2 on 24 October 2013, stated that more than two years after the events, this neighbour was still convinced that she saw Agnès on the 7th. The report revealed another witness who agreed with this: a saleswoman friend of Agnès who stated that she saw her in her shop on either Thursday 7 or Friday 8 April.