(The complete story can be found here at TruTV's Website or click on the
hypertext link above and below:
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/family/dupont-de-ligonnes/the-perfect-family.html
The Perfect Family
The four Dupont de Ligonnes children.
Xavier
had to spend a lot of time away from home to manage his business
ventures, which his circle of friends, relatives, and acquaintances
thought were flourishing. Xavier did not have to worry about his
children's care when he was away on business. His wife, Agnes, whose job
as a catechism teacher at the local Blanche-de-Castille Catholic high
school never kept her from being there when the children were home sick,
needed someone to fix their meals, or anything else that required
motherly attention.
Xavier,
when he was home, led an active social life with his wife, and they
both seemed to enjoy each other's company when seen in public. They
often dined together with the rest of the family at a local pizzeria on
Sundays. When Xavier was in town, he and his wife would occasionally
take square dancing classes with other couples, who admired how happy
the husband and wife seemed.
Neighbors
saw the four kids running and laughing with the family Labradors in the
yard. The house also served as a popular and welcoming place where the
mother would serve snacks to friends her children invited over after
school.
The
first sign of trouble came when close friends and relatives received a
letter from Xavier saying that he was an undercover agent for the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Agency and that the family had to move away to an
undisclosed location under the witness protection program. Friends and
relatives were stunned. Xavier was gone a lot for his work, but no one
knew that he had ties to undercover police, much less DEA agents in the
United States.
But
then, very bad news followed after Xavier sent the mysterious email.
When police were called to investigate the family's disappearance,
investigators dropped a bombshell: the mother, the three sons, and the
daughter were found dead, individually rolled-up in sleeping bags and
buried underneath the patio in the backyard. Autopsy reports would later
reveal that they had been drugged before they were shot, except for
Agnes, who was probably shot first.
Expecting
to find Xavier's body nearby the crime scene, investigators soon
learned that Xavier was alive and well and had driven to southern France
where credit card records revealed that he had stayed at a chic hotel
for a few nights. Then, less than two weeks after his family was found
murdered, Xavier abandoned his Citroen C5 near a cheap hotel almost 700
miles away from Nantes near the French Rivera. Then he vanished.
An
international arrest warrant was issued for Xavier, who officials said
could be anywhere. French investigators then began making inquiries
about Xavier's background in hopes of uncovering clues about where they
might be able to find the man whom the French press called the "Most
Wanted Man in France."
The
first truth to emerge was that Xavier was not an advertising executive,
which the press initially reported. And he certainly was not a
successful businessman, either, as investigators quickly unraveled a web
of deceit and lies Xavier had crafted to maintain appearances of wealth
and affluence while drowning in financial ruin.
