France launches int’l search for murder suspect

NANTES: French authorities has issued an international search alert for murder suspect Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes amid evidence that he carefully planned the killing of his wife and four children.

The 50-year-old businessman is wanted after the bodies of his wife and children aged 13 to 20 were dug up in the garden of their family home in the western city of Nantes in Brittany on Thursday.

Autopsies done on the bodies showed the victims had been "methodically" shot with a .22 calibre firearm similar to one that Dupont de Ligonnes had used in shooting practice at a Nantes rifle club.

Wife Agnes 49, daughter Anne, 16, and three sons were apparently shot several times in the head while asleep, around April 3 or 4, and tests are under way to see if they were drugged first.

Police said there were several suspect purchases in the run-up to the killings. Items bought included quicklime, which can be used to stifle odours in a decomposing body, jute sacks, powerful cleaning agents, a shovel and a wheelbarrow.

The missing man was last seen on April 15, when he left a budget hotel at Roquebrune-sur-Argens in the Var region on France's Mediterranean coast, abandoning one of the family cars in the car park. (AFP)