A British couple found dead at their farmhouse in rural France may have died in a murder-suicide, French police said.
Andrew Searle, 62, and his 56-year-old wife Dawn Kerr were found at 12.20pm last Thursday at their home in the quiet French hamlet of Les Pesquiès, north of Toulouse.
Ms Kerr died after having received “several blows to the head using a blunt or sharp object”, whilst Mr Searle died as a result of hanging, a post mortem revealed.
A murder investigation has been opened and police are continuing “to determine whether the tragedy resulted from a marital crime followed by a suicide or from a third party”.
Ms Kerr’s body showed no signs of sexual assault and Mr Searle “did not show any visible defensive injuries”.
A neighbour of the British couple found Ms Kerr lying dead in front of her house, “partly undressed”, and called the emergency services at 12.27, prosecutors said.
As they entered, emergency services found the body of Mr Searle, a former financial crime investigator, hanged inside the house.
Investigators have not ruled out that the retired couple were murdered for “financial motives”.
Detectives are reportedly looking into whether gangsters with a “score to settle” may have been behind the deaths.
According to his LinkedIn page, Mr Searle specialised in financial crime prevention who worked at companies including Standard Life and Barclays Bank.
Mr Searle took an early retirement in 2015, after which he is believed to have run into financial troubles when his rental business was forced into liquidation in 2023.
A jewellery box was found near Ms Kerr’s body, but no item or weapon which could have caused the injuries was located. Cash was also found in the couple’s bedroom.
The couple had previously lived in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh before moving to France around 10 years ago.
Mr Searle is originally from Sussex, England, while Ms Kerr, a project manager, grew up in Eyemouth in the Scottish Borders. She is the mother of Hollyoaks actor and country musician Callum Kerr.
The couple was well-liked in the local area, with one neighbour Dominique telling French press: “We knew them, we walked our dogs together. They were very much appreciated locally.
“When they arrived they made contact with the neighbours and in September, they would often have a meal with everyone at their house.”
Mr Searle was pictured entering a tobacconist in the nearby town of Villefranche de Rouergue on the Wednesday evening before his death.
CCTV images obtained by Mail Online show Mr Searle entering the shop at just before 6pm as the shop was closing. He is seen buying a chocolate bar and two 3-euro lottery tickets. He then thanked the shopkeeper and walked back to his car where his wife Dawn was reportedly waiting.
