According to expert reports, the victims died no later than 5.30pm, well before police intervened.
The killer, who was questioned for the first time by the prosecutor earlier today, was unable to explain what drove him to carry out the killings, the Neuchâtel authorities reported in a statement.
The defendant also admitted to having used the knife to deliberately attack a police officer who had entered the house where the bloodbath took place.
This had led the policeman to fire three shots at the man, wounding him in the lower part of the body. The suspect had then ended up in handcuffs and was later hospitalised. He will now be prosecuted for the crime of murder.
The results of the forensic examination, confirmed by the defendant’s statements, establish that the victims died no later than 5.30pm on August 19. When a relative alerted the police at 9pm, the murders had already taken place.
A patrol car arrived on the scene, carried out an inspection and managed to enter the flat around 11.30pm, after a locksmith opened the door. The police officers were shocked by the gruesome scene they witnessed.
“The investigation is continuing with the aim of better understanding what happened in this family in the days and weeks leading up to the tragedy. A psychiatric expertise will be arranged for the defendant,” the police and prosecutor’s office added in the statement.
The man had been legally separated from his wife since June 12 and lived in Le Locle. Between 2020 and 2022, mutual complaints had been lodged between the spouses, in particular for damage. But there had been nothing in the last three years, explained Simon Baechler, head of the judicial police of Neuchâtel.
Therefore, the family was not under surveillance by the police and there were no warning signs that such an offence could take place.
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