A Brooklyn man has been charged with the stabbing death of his wife, whose dismembered body was found near his vacation home in southern France, according to reports.
Billy Kruger was arrested Friday when he was about to fly from France from Toulouse, hours after police found the remains of his 52-year-old wife, Laure Bardina-Kruger, in a storm drain in the town of Peyriac-de Mer, The France-Presse agency reported.
The French-American citizen was charged on Sunday with aggravated murder after confessing to police that he had stabbed his wife twice, telling the investigating judge that he was in self-defense, prosecutor Marie-Agnes Jolie told AFP.
The couple, who had spent a few weeks each year in Peyriac-de-Mer, in the Mediterranean, south of Narbonne, had planned to leave for their home in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday, where Bardina-Kruger worked as a teacher. informed departure.
“The victim’s father sounded the alert after his daughter failed to show up for a family gathering in Carcassonne,” an investigator said, according to the Mirror.
“He had to say goodbye to everyone before the couple returned to Jakarta,” said the source.
Instead, the police were instructed to search for the victim and they found his body in a gutter on a road near the home. “
After Bardina-Kruger’s body was found, the police began a search for her husband, who was arrested in the departure area of Toulouse airport.
On Sunday, a bouquet of white roses was placed at the top of the drain where her remains were found. The police found his luggage in his apartment.
“We still don’t know what happened, but Lauren never received any alarm signals about the violent acts against her by her husband,” Bardina-Kruger’s brother Pierre Bardina posted on Facebook. “You always think that this can only happen to other people, but violence against women can happen suddenly.”
The couple were last seen at a restaurant in Peyriac-de-Mer on Thursday night, hours before they killed her, the Mirror reported.
Bardina-Kruger, who taught at the Jakarta Intercultural School, had held previous teaching positions in Shanghai, Cairo and Hawaii, according to the report.
La Dépêche du Midi newspaper reported that Kruger said he was working as a diving instructor in Indonesia. His ties to Brooklyn were unclear.
“They were never a strong word between them. When they came to sit with us, they could have dinner, have two or three glasses, but never again, “a friend of the couple told local media, the Mirror reported.
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