South of Toulouse. 3-year-old child died of asphyxiation: mother and stepfather indicted

Thursday November 16, 2023, a child three years died at home, commune of Saubens (Haute-Garonne), town located about twenty kilometers south of Toulouse.

It was a call from the little boy’s mother that triggered the emergency intervention, around 1:45 a.m., during the night from Wednesday to Thursday.

Suspicious traces

The child was unfortunately dead when firefighters arrived in Saubens. But the suspicious traces noted on site constituted a medico-legal obstacle to the removal of the body.

Dispatched to the scene, the gendarmes of the research brigade de Muret placed mother in custodyaged 23, and step-father of the little victim, aged 20.

The Toulouse public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation “for murder of a child under 15 years old”. A autopsy was carried out on Thursday afternoon at the IML (Medico-legal Institute) of Rangueil, in Toulouse.

“Multiple bruises and strangulation marks”

This Friday, November 17, the Toulouse Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that this autopsy revealed “ multiple bruises on the body of the victim, of different ages, as well as marks of strangulation.”

The finding is now medically established: “The child is died of asphyxiation mechanical“, indicates the public prosecutor of Toulouse.

The voluntary intervention of one or more people causing the child’s death was therefore largely favored over the hypothesis of an accidental death. The statements of the child’s mother and her companion, in police custody, are, as they stand, completely incompatible with the forensic findings.

The father was worried

Still according to the prosecution, “the father of the child, who did not have custody of him, but regularly exercised his right of visitation and accommodation, had been worried for several days conditions in which her son lived with his mother and her partner.

They face life imprisonment

The child’s mother and stepfather, “who have never previously been convicted”, will be referred to the Toulouse public prosecutor’s office and indicted for “murder of a person under the age of 15”. Their placement in pre-trial detention will be required. The penalty for this crime is life imprisonment.

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.