The bodies of three adults, all killed by multiple blows from a blunt weapon, were discovered on 11 July at two separate locations near Pretoria, South Africa's capital, according to prosecutor Gauthier Poupeau of the Coutances public prosecutor's office in north-western France. The victims were a couple from near Avranches in the Manche region, who had travelled to South Africa the previous day.
They were accompanied by the woman's underage daughter and her grandmother.
South African authorities quickly identified a 44-year-old man as a suspect. According to prosecutors, he is the ex-husband of one of the victims and the father of the minor, and had arrived in the country shortly before the murders.
The day after the bodies were found, the suspect left South Africa with a family member and the child, returning to Europe.
French police, led by the Central Office for the Repression of Violence Against Persons and the Juvenile Office of the French judicial police, were able to trace the two suspects to Luxembourg.
On 22 July, Luxembourg police arrested both the child's father and a suspected accomplice, aged 71, acting on a European arrest warrant. The 15-year-old girl, who was with them, was taken to safety and flown back to France the same day, according to the Coutances prosecutor.
The two suspects remain in custody in Luxembourg and are expected to be handed over to French authorities in the near future. They face charges of murder, kidnapping or unlawful detention of a minor under 15 as part of an organised group, and criminal conspiracy.
Meanwhile, in France, "other associates of the main suspect" have been taken into custody and indicted for kidnapping or unlawful detention of a minor as part of an organised group, and for criminal conspiracy. Two of these individuals have been remanded in custody, prosecutor Poupeau said.
