The husband of murdered Karen Carter has revealed his heartbreak after discovering that his late wife was having an affair. Karen, 65, was left dying of stab wounds in the picturesque French village of Trémolat in the Dordogne department, later to be discovered by the man she was having an affair with. Retired businessman Jean-François Guerrier, 74, found her bleeding out in the driveway of her holiday home on April 29 after they’d spent the evening with others at a wine-tasting event.
After an investigation was launched into the mother of four’s death, it was uncovered that she had been unfaithful, which her husband Alan, 65, said left him with “a feeling of complete betrayal”. He told the Times: “What has come out of this investigation has confirmed a relationship I did not want to believe, and that had been denied to me repeatedly by [my] wife.”
Karen’s affair had reportedly become the talk of the small town, with her husband of 30 years pleading with her to tell the truth about it.
He told the outlet: “I told her that the gossip was tarnishing her reputation, but she batted it away and said there was nothing in it. She told our friends the same.”
Karen and Jean-François ran a local cafe and bar, Cafe Village, and Alan believed the retired businessman used their time together to have a “strong influence” over his wife.
He said: “It was so obvious that Jean-François had an affection for Karen, and I feel he took advantage of the time we were spending apart.
“I felt the Café Village attracted a lonely bunch of people who had nothing else to throw their lives into. I felt they were having a strong influence on Karen, and she really did not know that much about them.”
Alan said the family also have a home in South Africa, but didn’t want to settle there due to the high crime rates.
He said: “I could not have imagined the reality would be that Karen got caught up in what is being talked about as some sort of love triangle that resulted in her being murdered in France.”
The prosecutor leading the investigation focused it “on people likely to have had something against the victim, or against the couple that she had formed”. Jean-François was interviewed by police but later released as they had no reason to suspect him.
Over the weekend, officers looked for clues and the murder weapon in the woods behind the family’s holiday home. They continue to work on the belief that jealousy was the motive for the crime.
