Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès and the Nantes house of horror
Revised October 2023
Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès is still being sought for apparently murdering his wife, four children, and two dogs at their home in the Loire-Atlantique city of Nantes in France before disappearing without a trace in 2011.
The six were seen as a perfect French family, devoted to Catholicism with an aristocratic background steeped in the country’s rich history. Yet, in April 2011, events in the Nantes house of horror would leave five of the family dead, with nobody truly knowing why.
The bodies of Dupont de Ligonnès’ wife, Agnès, and their four children, Arthur, Thomas, Anne, and Benoît, were found buried under the porch of their home by French police. With Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès nowhere to be found, he became the prime murder suspect in the familicide.
Despite massive searches of the area where Xavier was last seen, no trace has been found. Did he commit suicide in some isolated cave in the mountains of Southern France? Was he in a witness protection program run by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), who staged the murders? Has he assumed a new identity using previous dubious contacts to escape justice?
The story featured in Season 1, Episode 3, titled “House of Terror,” on Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries, first screened on July 1, 2020.
Who was Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès?
Xavier Pierre Marie Dupont de Ligonnès was born in Versailles, France on January 9, 1961 to Bernard-Hubert Dupont de Ligonnès (7 November 1931 – 20 January 2011) and Geneviève Thérèse Maître. Bernard was an engineer with a degree from the École nationale supérieure de mécanique et d'aérotechnique in Poitiers.
The Dupont de Ligonnès is an aristocratic French family originally from Annonay, in the Vivarais region in south-eastern France. They shortened their name from Molin du Pont de Ligonnès in the 17th century and once owned famous Châteaus such as the Château du Pont-de-Mars in Chambon-sur-Lignon and Le Château Ducal d’Uzès. Prominent family members included Édouard du Pont de Ligonnès (1797–1877), his son Bishop Charles du Pont de Ligonnès and the war hero and Knight of the Légion d’honneur Bernard Dupont, 6th Marquis de Ligonnès.
Ligonnès was married to his wife Agnès Dupont de Ligonnès, with four children: Arthur, Thomas, Anne, and Benoît. Xavier and Agnès had met in the early 1980s when he was twenty, and she was about seventeen. But Xavier longed for adventure, so he broke up with Agnès and left to go traveling. One year later, he returned to Versailles and learned that Agnès was pregnant with someone else's child. Xavier chose to marry Agnès and adopt her child, giving him his prestigious last name. Marrying an unwed mother was almost unheard of in Versailles at the time.
In 2011, they lived in a modest house at 55 Boulevard Robert-Schuman in Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, France.
Xavier worked as a salesman and attempted to create several businesses over the years, all with little success, owing money.
He founded Netsurf Concept LLC, a company recorded on the commercial register in Florida, United States. His advisor was Gérard Corona, a French immigrant and manager of the company Strategy Netcom, which was founded in 1998. Corona specialized in assisting foreigners with administrative and legal procedures in the USA and helped his clients to open foreign bank accounts and obtain anonymous bank cards, allowing them to withdraw money anywhere in the world without leaving a trace.
In 2003, he formed a business called SELREF. His purpose has been defined as secretive, with only the bare minimum information ever released to authorities. Xavier hired six salespeople to the company in 2003, freeing them from their contracts not long afterwards.
The Dupont de Ligonnès family
Agnès
Agnès Ligonnès married Xavier in 1992. She was born on 9 November 1962 in Neuilly-sur-Seine in the suburbs as Agnès Hodanger. She was an assistant at Blanche-de-Castille Catholic School in Nantes, where part of her duties involved teaching catechism. She was described as very religious, regularly attending mass with her children. She was 48 years old at the time of her death.
Arthur
Arthur Nicolas Dupont de Ligonnès was born on 7 July 1990 to another father but was recognized by Xavier as his son when he married Agnès when Arthur was two years old.
He earned a baccalauréat in Science, Industrial Technology and Sustainable Development at 20. He was studying for a technical diploma in IT at the Saint-Gabriel private college in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre in the Vendée department, an hour's drive from Nantes. He was also employed as a waiter at a pizzeria in Nantes. He was 20 years old at the time of his death.
Thomas
Thomas Dupont de Ligonnès was born on 28 August 1992 in Draguignan, south of France. He earned a baccalauréat in Literature since he was passionate about music, and he studied it at the Catholic University of the West in the town of Angers. He lived in the Saint-Aubin Hall of Residence and was described as an "ordinary boy his family often accompanied to drop him off and pick him up". He was 18 years old at the time of his death.
Anne
Anne Dupont de Ligonnès was born on 2 August 1994 in Draguignan. She was in the 11th grade at La Perverie, a private Catholic school, following an academic curriculum in Science, and was described by her friends and relatives as a girl who shared her mother's religious beliefs and was considerate and approachable. She modeled for mail-order catalogs. Anne was 16 years old at the time of her death.
Benoît
Benoît Dupont de Ligonnès was born on 29 May 1997, Xavier and Agnès's youngest child. He was an altar server at Saint-Félix Church in Nantes and enjoyed playing the drums. He was 13 years old at the time of his death.
Dupont de Ligonnès children from left to right - Benoît, Anne, Thomas, Arthur
The Nantes horror house timeline
July 2010
In July 2010, Xavier emailed friends, writing that there may one day be “accidents” that have happened to his family he might be blamed for. He wrote, “I hope that, even after a police investigation, my parents, brothers, and sisters will never be led to believe that I intentionally caused these accidents (even if the evidence is strong).”
January 2011
On January 20, 2011, Xavier's father Hubert died of a heart attack, and he cleared out his apartment, sorting through his personal belongings. Hubert's neighbor, Michael Calvi, recalled that Xavier tried to recover a count's signet ring that had belonged to Hubert and tried to find out if his Father had money. Still, there was none, as he had been having financial troubles for several years. He died in poverty.
While in Hubert's apartment, Xavier discovered a .22 caliber long rifle. Michael recalled that when he last saw Xavier, he had a very "dark" look in his eyes. On February 2, Xavier obtained his firearms license. Before getting the rifle, his friends recalled that he had no interest in weapons.
February 2011
Xavier obtained his firearms license on February 2, 2011.
March 2011
On March 12, 2011, Xavier purchased Rifle bullets and registered at the Charles Des Jamonières shooting range north of Nantes, where he visited four times between 26 March and 1 April. Thomas and Benoît had also started to learn how to shoot. Xavier asked several questions to his instructor, one of which was about using a silencer. On March 12, he bought a silencer to fit the rifle he found in his father’s apartment.
In late March, Xavier purchased items from a DIY store in Saint-Maur in the central French department of Indre, approximately 200 miles (320 km) from Nantes, a 3.5-hour drive away. The items included a roll of large bin liners and a box of adhesive plastic paving slabs.
April 2011
On Friday, April 1, Arthur left Saint-Gabriel private college in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre and did not turn up at the pizzeria where he worked and was due to go to pick up his monthly wages. The manager at the restaurant was surprised by this as he always came on regularly to pick up his pay at the beginning of each month.
Xavier also bought cement, a shovel and a hoe and on April 2, four bags of lime, 10 kg each, from different shops in the Nantes area. Quicklime is calcium oxide, and when it contacts water, as it often does in burial sites, it reacts with the water to make calcium hydroxide, also known as slaked lime. This corrosive material may damage the corpse, but the heat produced from this activity will kill many putrefying bacteria and dehydrate the body.
On Sunday, 3 April, a neighbor called Fabrice saw Agnès for the last time. Shortly afterwards, he sees Xavier putting large bags into his Citroën C5 car.
That evening, Xavier and, Agnès and Anne, Arthur and Benoît ate in a restaurant in Nantes then visited the cinema.
At 10.37 pm, Xavier left a message on his sister Christine's answerphone, "We spent our Sunday evening in the cinema together, then in a restaurant, and we've just got back – I'm just calling to ask if it's too late to speak to you on the phone and now I see it's gone to voicemail. But ... I was surprised you spoke to me about Bertram, who's getting ready for his flight?! Huh?! But ... I thought he'd only just arrived! ... So I was a bit surprised. Anyway, sending you my love ... If it's not too late, call me back or send me a text and I'll call you. OK, I'm going to put the kids to bed say hi to everyone. See you soon! ... Maybe ...". The recording was released to the public in September 2019.
The murders
Investigators believed that Xavier murdered his wife and three of his children on the night of April 3 or 4.
On Monday, 4 April, Anne and Benoît did not attend their school, La Perverie-Sacré-Cœur, "due to illness". Their friends become concerned when they cannot reach them online or by text on their cellphones.
Xavier spoke with his sister, Christine de Ligonnès, on the telephone for 20 to 30 minutes, and she later told the police that everything seemed normal.
A friend of Thomas who studied music with him confirmed that Thomas spent the afternoon of April 5 with him at the friend's home in Angers, where they played music and watched television. Thomas had planned to spend the night at his friend's house, but Xavier phoned his son, asking him to return to Nantes, as his mother had been involved in a "cycling accident".
Xavier told Thomas, "Listen, you have to come back. Your mother has had a bicycle accident. She's in hospital, in a coma. We don't know if she'll come out of it. It's very serious. You have to come home."
Thomas ate quickly with his friend, then took a train home around 10 pm. The following day, the friend tried to reach Thomas but only received brief text messages in reply, such as "I'm not coming to yours. I'm ill" and "Really ill, I'm not coming to class". Two days after Thomas's departure, his friend received a text: "I'm out of battery; my dad's looking for a new charger for me." This is the last that Thomas's friend heard from him.
On the 5th, Xavier ate with Thomas at the La Croix Cadeau, an expensive restaurant in Avrillé, near Angers. They arrived at about 9 pm, and Xavier ordered a €35 tasting menu with half a bottle of Anjou-villages-brissac red wine whilst Thomas had a sea bass dish and tomato juice. The two waiters at the restaurant remember Thomas feeling unwell near the end of the meal and that Xavier and Thomas barely spoke to each other during the evening.
On April 5, a bailiff arrived at the home to recover a debt of €20,000, but no one answered the door.
The family's neighbours claim they saw Agnès in front of her house on April 5. An employee of a hairdressing salon near the home claimed to have seen Agnès. The employee stated, "I came to pick up my wages. It was a Tuesday, it was 5 April. I needed my wages. I saw her on the pavement on her phone around 12.15 or 12.30."
Pauline, Thomas's ex-girlfriend and classmate, said that she had spoken to him on Facebook on April 5 while he was at his friend's house and that he had seemed "odd in his way of writing" when he told her his father told him his mother had been in a cycling accident and that Thomas had to return home that same evening. Furthermore, the day before, she had noticed that he seemed "lonely" and had told her that he "would skip classes on Wednesday to come to a music rehearsal," but he did not turn up at the rehearsal, which was "not like him".
This week, neighbors heard the family dogs howling for two consecutive nights and never heard them again.
On April 6, Arthur's girlfriend, concerned after not having heard from him, knocks on the door of the family home, where "a light was on on the first floor", but the family's two Labradors do not bark when she knocks.
The next day, Xavier is seen making several return trips from the house to his car, loading the car with large bags. A neighbor also claims to have spoken to Agnès on this day: "On 7 April, I saw Agnès walking her dog. We spoke briefly, then I cut our chat short because I had an important appointment. The newspapers say the autopsies put her death on the 4th [April], but I'm almost convinced I saw her on the evening of Thursday the 7th because I know I didn't have much time to speak to her as I pick up my son from the childminder every Thursday evening."
On April 8, Xavier wrote on the Catholic online forum cite-catholique.org.from the IP address of the family home in Nantes. He also emailed his brother-in-law (Christine's husband), saying, "Everything's fine, Bertram; you'll hear more detailed news soon through Christine. Bye for now. All the best, Xavier." A message to Xavier's mother and sister is also sent from the family home's IP address.
On April 11, the school Anne and Benoît attended received a letter signed by Xavier stating that Anne and Benoît would be leaving the school and the family would be moving to Australia due to "urgent professional changes". The Catholic school where Agnès works also receives a resignation letter signed by Agnès, stating the exact same reason for leaving. The headmaster was unable to reach her by telephone.
A typed, unsigned letter dated April 11 was sent to Xavier's immediate family. In this letter, Xavier explains that after having worked covertly for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the entire family has had to relocate to the United States as part of a Federal Witness Protection Program and that no one will be able to contact them for a few years. He advises his relatives to circulate reports on social media that the family has moved to Australia. There is no proof that Xavier wrote this letter.
Xavier stays at Hôtel Première Classe in Blagnac, near Toulouse, in southern France, on April 11-12 and pays for his stay using his credit card. He then spent the night of 12 to 13 April at the Auberge de Cassagne in Le Pontet in Vaucluse, in south-eastern France, under the false name of Mr Laurent Xavier, also paying using his credit card.
Police informed
At around 2 pm on Monday, April 11, 2011, a neighbor called Estelle Chapon noticed the family's house was closed. She did some work for the family, doing alterations for Agnès and ironing for Xavier. She saw the family regularly and recalled that their house was lively and busy.
In the mailbox, she saw there was a note, "Please return all correspondence to sender. Thank you." and she noticed that the shutters on the windows were closed. She felt something was wrong because the shutters were always open, even when they went on vacation. For the next two days, she noticed the same thing. Concerned, she called the police.
On Wednesday, April 13, the local police arrived to check on the house. They noticed the front door was locked, and the shutters were still closed. They had a locksmith open the door. Once inside, they found everything in the house was in its place. There were some bedrooms where the sheets had been removed, and some closets were also opened. The police believed that the family had left voluntarily. There was nothing out of the ordinary that led them to launch a formal investigation.
Estelle, however, still believed that something was wrong. She noticed that all of their cars, except for Xavier’s C5, were still there, including Agnès'. She knew that the entire family, along with their dogs and bags, could not fit in that car.
55 Boulevard Robert-Schuman in Nantes
That evening, Xavier stays at a hotel in La Seyne-sur-Mer in Var, south-eastern France. He had lived in the town in the 1980s. A former girlfriend informed the police that Xavier had contacted her that evening, although they had not met.
On Thursday, April 14, Xavier withdraws €30 from an ATM in Roquebrune-sur-Argens in Var and stays at the Hotel Formule 1 in the town, where he is captured on film by surveillance camera. On Friday, he checked out of the hotel and left his car behind. He crossed the parking lot carrying a bag with a long object in it, which may well have been the rifle used in the murders.
The letter
An unsigned letter dated 11 April 2011, apparently sent by Xavier, was received by his close relatives. The media released this letter in May. It covered four pages of A4-sized paper, written in an informal, sometimes humorous style, and at times rambles and goes off on unrelated tangents. It translates into English as follows:
Hi everyone!
Huge surprise: we have to leave urgently for the US, due to a very particular set of circumstances that we will explain below.
You're receiving this letter by conventional post because for the next few years, we can't communicate any other way (no emails, no texts, no phone calls) for safety reasons.
When you read this letter, we will no longer be in France and won't be able to return for an as-yet undetermined period of time (a few years).
You must be wondering what's going on…
Here's the story (as least, as much as we're allowed to tell you. This letter is the only correspondence we were allowed to write – which might be good news for some of you – and it has been checked before being sent to you).
When we started our company in Miami in 2003, we were put into contact (through the person who helped us to start the company) with the "DEA" (Drug Enforcement Administration: a sort of American "drug squad" with agents on the ground in several countries), who were looking for a French national to infiltrate the French nightclub scene to obtain information about drug-trafficking and money-laundering networks without drawing attention to themselves.
Through the Route des Commerciaux, I found myself in a different city every evening, with a legitimate reason to make contact with nightclub bosses (to invite them to be listed in the "Leisure" section of the RDC), so I (Xavier) was the ideal candidate:
So once I was tested and briefed, I accepted my mission of working incognito for the DEA, under the condition that I maintain secrecy (which includes, even more importantly, the children).
So that's the real reason why we returned to France instead of settling in Miami (and not due to vaccinations that are supposedly "dangerous" for the children … those who have never "swallowed" this "bogus" reason can rest assured: they were right! LOL)
This has allowed us to build up our official business activity: the RDC and SELREF (established especially to develop "loisirs-visites.com" alongside RDC, so that nightclubs can feature in it), and to have an (unofficial) monthly income, since this official activity did not bring in enough money to cover our expenses … (far from it).
(Moreover, even with this cash boost, we have experienced temporary financial difficulties from time to time, as you all know, and we'd like to take this opportunity to once again thank Emmanuel and Bertram, who bailed us out in a timely manner by acting as our bankers.)
Everything has gone according to plan in the nightclubs for the last 7 years … until now:
With the information that I (Xavier) have collected in this time, I have become a key witness in an upcoming trial involving major international drug-trafficking kingpins. The trial will have to take place in the US in the next few years. The date has not yet been determined.
What complicates matters is that certain tips had recently led us to believe that my cover may have been blown.
And unfortunately, we received confirmation of this yesterday.
Therefore, the situation has now become potentially dangerous for us here and has required us to take emergency measures.
When I first went undercover, I accepted that I might be placed into the "Federal Witness Protection Program". This is what we now have to do … and we're not doing it with any excitement, but because it's necessary and there's no way around it.
So we have been taken into the protective custody of the US Government and "transferred" to the US, and we have new identities, which must, of course, be kept secret.
By the time you read this letter, we will officially "no longer exist" as French citizens!
We will be "lambda" US citizens, living in the US like any other US citizen … except we will be forbidden from communicating with our family and friends for an undetermined period of time, at least until the trial is over.
This gives us some advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages:
Absolute safety (no reprisals to fear)
The US Government is taking care of us financially
Living in the US (we can't tell you where, but the weather is warm most of the time and the music is good …)
Disadvantages:
Sudden, rushed departure in total secrecy, without being able to put our affairs in order
No contact with you for a long time
Impossible to let everyone know: all electronic communications had to cease immediately
The hardest thing: there is some tension with the children, who couldn't tell their friends and are forbidden from using Facebook and other online networks (but it's OK really. They understand.)
We had to give up the dogs: luckily, someone took both of them (so they won't be separated)
We're relying on each of you to carry out the tasks that we have assigned you below. We hope we haven't asked too much of any of you:
We know we can count on you.
1) Cédric:
Come and remove whatever is left at home by 31 May (the earlier, the better)
We started sorting through things and giving stuff away (clothes, etc.), but we didn't have time to finish
We could have let the Americans sort everything out, but they're not very thorough and everything would have got lost (prized furniture, musical instruments, cars …)
70% of the stuff can be taken to the dump (all the beds, chests of drawers, storage boxes, trunks, etc.): the furniture to keep is in the living room (+ the wardrobe that has been taken apart in Arthur's bedroom and the desk in the laundry room), the rest can go to the dump: the nearest one is Ecopoint, 3 km from the house (open until midday on Sundays)
[Redacted]
EXCEPT the boxes pertaining to Project Crystal (maps, tickets, etc.), which need to be given to F.M. [full name redacted] (contact [him/her] by phone)
ALSO EXCEPT the equipment to give back: Bouygues router
The furniture to be kept should be given to Locmalo while waiting for it to be shipped to B [full name redacted], Agnès's brother (see below)
The house keys are hidden outside in the gas meter, which you can open with any tool (car key, screwdriver, knife). Note: some of the copies of the front door key are badly done and you have to wriggle the key around in the lock to get the door to open.
We were able to put everything we want to keep – and which we can by no means take with us – into a safe to find later, such as personal items (photos that might show a "non-American" life, souvenirs, computers, various pieces of paperwork, jewellery, weapons, etc.): so you don't need to do any sorting, just throw everything out … or keep it for yourself if you want (electrical appliances, etc.).
Inform Alain and other friends of our departure.
Sell the Golf convertible and the Xantia (the signed paperwork is on the living-room table) and send the money from the sale (minus 20% commission for your service) to Christine (contact her by phone).
(Note: the C5 was unsellable so it was given to the father of one of Arthur's friends for parts.)
Also, go to Arthur's and Thomas's places to do the same thing: the landlords are aware. The addresses and keys are on the living-room table.
Presents for Cédric (to share with Renaud and other friends who lend a helping hand) to thank you for your help: table football, piano, TV and other video equipment, CD/DVD collection, audio and video tapes, musical instruments (drum kit, guitar and bass, piano), plus some other things, which anyone can take (fridge, tumble dryer, etc.)
PS: no need to worry about the metal detector or the canoe, which can stay there (nor the rubble and the other mess piled up on the terrace, at the end of the garden and in the basement: that was all there when we moved in.)
2) Bertrand:
Arrange with Cédric to recover and store the high-value furniture to be kept (they are Hodanger family heirlooms.)
Contact F. G. [full name redacted] to get the "crowbar" display cabinet from her (and take the other worthless furniture off her hands)
Inform all the Hodanger family [redacted]
[Redacted]
Give the money from the sale of the display cabinet to Christine, to share it with Véro
Keep the sales receipts from the furniture to cover the moving fees
3) Emmanuel:
Set up an appointment for a final inspection and inventory after 31 May with the P [full name redacted] agency and obtain the deposit (and send it to Christine, even if the amount is insignificant.)
Cancel the electricity, gas, telephone, water, Internet and water contracts: the paperwork is on the living-room table.
Tell our friends (Michel, Marc, Ludo, etc.) about our departure.
FYI: all the letters addressed to the house are being returned to sender.
Ongoing matters will fall by the wayside as time goes by (social security and other professional or private matters)
4) Christine and Bertram:
Manage the accounts according to the instructions in the document enclosed with this letter.
(More than €4,000 will be coming in every month to various accounts for a while + the proceeds from the sale of the furniture mentioned above.)
5) Frédéric:
Inform Véronique and help her let the rest of the Ligonnès family know.
[Redacted] The best thing to do would be to send her a copy of this letter when she is in Versailles.
IMPORTANT: tell the "youngsters" not to divulge any information on Facebook and not to be surprised if the kids don't reply to them.
If possible, pursue Project Crystal: this could be a good project for Arthur, Laetitia's son, and maybe Edouard (and it would allow us to have a comfortable income when we return.)
The enclosed documents give an overview of the project – contact Cédric to pick up the stock of maps and tickets.
So that's it for the to-do list.
The children's schools are aware, as are Arthur's and Thomas's landlords, and Agnès's and Arthur's employers.
The official story is that we have been transferred to AUSTRALIA for work, without providing any specific details.
It would be good if you could spread this false story on Facebook and elsewhere.
We hope it doesn't drag on for too many years. (But we're still anxious about how long the legal proceedings in the US will take.)
In a while from now, we will be able to send you some information by post.
We have designated Emmanuel as the "central contact" as he has the advantage of knowing almost all of you. He will be the one who receives letters to be sent on to you. He will receive instructions in good time.
Of course, we send all our love and are thinking of you very much during this enforced separation;
Take good care of yourselves.
We'll have so many stories to tell you later on!
Investigation and discovery of bodies
On April 15, the police returned to their house to conduct a more thorough investigation. They discovered that photos were missing from their frames. However, there was nothing else that raised suspicions, and they were convinced that the family had just voluntarily left the house.
Agnès' family continued to pressure the police, certain that the family did not simply leave. On April 18, 19 and 20th the police visited the house and did not find anything unusual. However, on their sixth visit on April 21, the police lieutenant found something odd under the terrace in the garden. That same day, the chief investigator held a press conference at the courthouse. He stated that the family's disappearance was unusual and that they would open an investigation into the case. The press conference was stopped as he had to answer an urgent phone call. He was told that while the police were digging under the terrace, they discovered large plastic trash bags bound with tape. Inside the bags were several bodies. They were wrapped in blankets and duvets, tied up and put into the bags.
The first grave contained the bodies of Agnès, Arthur, Benoît, and Anne. The two dogs were also buried there together with a crucifix. The body of Thomas was found in a separate grave. Xavier's body was not found, and since the rest of the family was dead, the police considered him to be the prime suspect.
On April 21, the metallic-blue Citroën C5 with registration 235 CJG 44 was found in the car park of the Formula 1 Hotel in Roquebrune-sur-Argens by police equipped with an automatic number plate recognition system.
Autopsy
The autopsy indicated that a drug found in sleeping pills was located in the children, but Agnès did not have drugs in her body. However, she did have a sleep apnea machine, which helped her sleep. It was discovered that her machine stopped suddenly at 3 am on the morning of April 3 or 4. It is believed that she was killed first and then the children. Each victim was killed by two bullets directed to the head. The bullets extracted from the bodies had been shot from a .22 long rifle. Surprisingly, neighbors were not awoken by any gunshots, but it is believed that the killer was using a silencer.
The murders were considered to be systematic executions. The victims were all in their pajamas, so it is believed that they were killed while they slept in their beds. Strangely, there was no trace of blood in the bedrooms. Also, there was no trace of blood in the living room, foyer, or bathroom. There was no blood found on any walls, furniture, or floors. Police were puzzled as to how someone could kill five people in a house and leave no trace of evidence behind, including blood spatter from a .22 rifle.
When crime scene investigators took samples from the scene, they found no fingerprints or DNA from anyone. At that point, there was still no absolute physical proof implicating Xavier.
Friends mentioned by killing his three sons, Xavier was also killing his lineage. For the French nobility in the "aristocratic world", this would have been dreadful because he would have been terminating his lineage and there would be no one to carry his name.
Police believed that Thomas was not killed at the same time as his mother and siblings. The whole family was home on Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3. However, Thomas left that weekend to go back to his Catholic university. His mother and siblings were murdered during the night of Sunday into Monday. Thomas was probably killed during the night of Tuesday into Wednesday and buried in a separate grave. It is suspected that Xavier hesitated in killing him because he was his eldest biological son and heir.
Funeral
The family's funeral was held at 2.30 pm at Saint-Félix Church in Nantes. The Dupont de Ligonnès family regularly attended this church, and Benoît was an altar server there. 1,400 people attended the funeral. The bodies were cremated after the funeral, and the ashes were buried on Saturday, April 30 at 10.30 am in Noyers-sur-Serein in the Yonne department in east-central France, where Agnès's family lived.
Hunt for Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès
Given Xavier’s attempts at constructing an alibi, his disappearance to southern France, suspicious purchases and the fact he owned a .22 Long Rifle like the one used in the killings, there was only one suspect. A manhunt got underway.
On April 29, a search was carried out in the Var department. On 10 May, an international arrest warrant was issued for Xavier.
On June 23, caving experts searched 40 natural caves in a 10-mile (15km) radius around Roquebrune-sur-Argens but with no success.
Aftermath
On 9 April 2013, an operation was conducted to find the body of Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès. This led to a major search effort. Investigators, assisted by cave divers, searched the old Pic Martin lead mines in Cannet-des-Maures in Var. It was here that Jacques Massié and his family were found murdered in 1981.
On 2 May 2013, a search was carried out by 50 police officers and firefighters from a unit specializing in searching in dangerous and hard-to-access locations. The search found nothing.
In 2015, bones were discovered close by at Bagnols-en-Forêt in Var, near a camp nearby containing items marked 2010 and 2011. Investigators initially suspected they had found the remains of Dupont de Ligonnès but eventually discovered they belonged to an unrelated male after DNA testing.
In July 2015, a journalist in Nantes was sent a photograph of Arthur and Benoît Dupont de Ligonnès; on the back was written a simple note — “I’m still alive.”
A raid on a monastery in 2019 also failed with a monk who bore a passing resemblance having been mistaken for the wanted man, the incident undoubtedly inspired by the frequent claims in newspapers that police fully backed the monastery theory.
On October 11, 2019, Guy Joao, 69, was detained at Glasgow Airport after arriving from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport with his wife Mary. French police officers thought they had spotted Dupont de Ligonnès boarding an EasyJet flight to Glasgow but could not apprehend the suspect in time and asked Scottish police to meet him when the flight landed.
The man who lived between Limay, Yvelines and Scotland. Fingerprints initially proved to be a partial match, but a DNA test later confirmed the man detained Dupont de Ligonnès. Joao was released after 26 hours in solitary confinement.
Guy Joao
The Scottish police had initially reported that Joao’s passport had been stolen in 2014 and that De Ligonnès was now using it. Even when the French told them that the suspect looked "nothing like" their suspect, the Scottish thought he might be "heavily disguised". Beyond his DNA, Joao, who was from a Portuguese background, was distinguishable from De Lignonnès because he lost a finger at work two decades before his detention in Glasgow.
In January 2020, Joao said, “When I was told I was a criminal, a murderer, I said no problem, I’ve never killed anyone, and two policemen handcuff me and take me into a small police car, in the back like the dogs and we go. The commandant tells me Well here it is, apparently you are Mr. Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès but i said that’s okay, but who is Mr. Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès?”.
Joao has lived in the same house in Limay, in the Yvelies department, around 40 miles from Paris, all his life. He worked for Renault before retiring, and after his first wife died, he remarried in 2016. Guy died in May 2021 at the age of 71 after a long illness.
In July 2020, Unsolved Mysteries’ executive producer Terry Dunn Meurer said the show's screening had generated more than 2,000 tips. The most interesting one regards a sighting in Chicago. The tip said a couple were on Lake Shore Drive, and they heard someone talking French, and they looked at him, and they had just seen the episode. They sent in a photo, and it looked like Xavier. Meurer said, “ So we’re hoping he’s catchable if he’s alive because of Netflix reach, global reach, or national reach.”
Muerer said someone was constantly working on the website going through the leads, and it was a “living, breathing television series where it has a life of its own”.
What was the motive?
Jean-Marc Bloch, former chief of staff for the Paris police, noted that the family gave the impression of being a perfect family with children in private schools and a lovely house. However, once investigators looked further into Xavier's life, they discovered that he did not lead the life that he was pretending to lead. In the early 2000s, the family tried to relocate to Florida unsuccessfully and had to return to France.
According to friends, during the last ten years, from 2001 to 2011, Xavier was in a "downward spiral of failure". He had lost a great amount of money; there were "bailiffs on his back", along with many other problems. Xavier claimed to be a business owner, creating successful companies, traveling across France, and being a busy businessman. The truth was that his companies were never really successful. Shortly before the murders, he discovered that they were almost out of money and would have to leave their house and face serious consequences. As a result, he would be exposed as someone unsuccessful.
Xavier was vain, proud, and would not want to "lose face". It is believed that he did not want his children to find out that he had no money. It was as if he was "on a mission" to "save" his children from finding out that their father did not have the life people thought he had.
What happened to Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès?
Suicide
Police believed his flight may have been a "goodbye" to his past life and where Xavier had spent happier moments. Some of the areas he visited were places where he and Agnès lived during the first few years of their marriage, and others were places where the children had been born.
The area around Roquebrune-sur-Argens where Xavier was last seen, is surrounded by cliffs and a mountain, leading some to believe he was intending to die there. The police and specialist teams searched the area for several weeks, including caves and crevices, but no trace of him was found. But was this a ruse to put investigators off the scent?
In many cases of “Familicide” or family murder, the killer commits suicide near the scene of the crime.
There is no evidence that Xavier used his credit cards again after April 14/15, 2011, and he did not rent any car or buy any plane or train tickets under his name.
Yet, no remains have been found despite exhaustive searches. Perhaps Xavier lies dead in an isolated cave or crevice in the mountains, but maybe not.
New life and new identity
But some believe that Xavier is still alive, living under a new identity. He worked with Gérard Corona, who worked to assist foreigners with administrative and legal procedures in the USA and helped his clients to open foreign bank accounts and to obtain anonymous bank cards. Could Corona somehow be implicated?
Was the letter that Xavier wrote to the family in April 2011 that he was disappearing because of DEA actions true? If so, it seems unlikely that the DEA would be involved in the murders. However, the family questioned whether the bodies were quickly cremated, and they were not allowed to see the actual Dupont de Ligonnès family. Perhaps dead bodies were planted, and the family are still alive, although this seems far-fetched.
Questions about the case
Why didn’t Xavier cover his tracks after the murders?
The murders of the family took place on the nights of April 3 and 5. The police discovered that Xavier spent the whole week inside the house. He was seen alone by acquaintances in Nantes. One week after the murders on April 10, he took his car and left Nantes. While driving between Nantes and La Rochelle, his vehicle got flashed by a speed camera. Around noon, he went to a restaurant; the credit card's time stamp verifies this. That evening, he checked into a hotel in La Rochelle. The next day, he headed southwest.
Although, according to police, Xavier was fleeing during this time, he made no attempts to cover his tracks. He withdrew money with his bank card and was recorded on security cameras without any effort to cover his face or hide his identity. He also went to several restaurants and used his credit cards there. This seemed strange as the murderer seemed to have taken significant steps to make the crime scene look normal and hide the bodies. Perhaps he intended to kill himself but changed his mind or was trying to find a way to commit suicide, knowing that the police would only find him after his death.
Digging the hole
The hole that the bodies and dogs were buried in was likely to have been beyond the physical capabilities of one man who was said to have back problems. 3.25 cubic yards or 5 tons of earth were dug out with a single shovel, with only 4 feet of headroom, meaning that work must have taken place whilst crouching. Despite the considerable soil movement, no trace was found in the garden. In this case, the perpetrator would have had to have used a tarp, displaced 5 tons of earth by hand, and left no trace of this earth. Furthermore, Christine claims that Xavier had neck and back problems and would not have been physically capable of such a task. Finally, it is surmised that due to the low headroom, the perpetrator would likely have both banged their head and rubbed their hair on the ceiling repeatedly, but no human skin cells, blood, or DNA were found there.
Stéphane Goldenstein, alongside Christine and Geneviève Dupont de Ligonnès
According to Stéphane Goldenstein (the lawyer for Geneviève Dupont de Ligonnès, the suspect's mother; Christine, his sister; and Bertram de Verdun, Christine's husband): "We don't even know when the victims were killed. The autopsy points to death between 10 and 21 days before their discovery. Such imprecision is truly astonishing. [...] In reality, nothing is certain in this affair other than the fact that some bodies were found at 55 Boulevard Robert Schuman. [...] Investigations were carried out, but all they have allowed us to ascertain is that the bodies share the same DNA.
No analysis has compared this common DNA with that of Agnès Hodanger. Furthermore, my client confirms that the bodies' heights and weights do not correspond to the known dimensions of the family members. In my opinion, this constitutes negligence during the autopsy. But the autopsy allows Christine and Geneviève to step into the breach. [...] What I also know is that one man alone cannot dig that hole under the patio; even a man blinded by rage and hatred: 2.5 cubic meters (3.25 cubic yards) of earth was displaced. The affair is based on the idea that Xavier Dupont killed his family before burying them. No other line of inquiry has been explored. I don't know who killed this family. Nothing about their lives would lead me to believe that anyone would have it in for them to this extent. That is the conclusion of my clients. Since no one could have killed them, the fact is that they are not dead."
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Sources
https://medium.com/the-mystery-box/unsolved-mysteries-where-is-count-xavier-dupont-de-ligonn%C3%A8s-f8b8bab85ebd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dupont_de_Ligonn%C3%A8s_murders_and_disappearance
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10119239/xavier-dupont-de-ligonnes-killing-family-arrested-glasgow/
https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/reddit-theories-about-xavier-dupont-de-ligonnes-unsolved-mysteries
https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/documentaries/unsolved-mysteries-xavier-dupont-chicago/
https://newsbeezer.com/franceeng/guy-joao-mistaken-for-xavier-dupont-de-ligonnes-is-dead/
https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2021-04-03-genevi%C3%A8ve-and-christine-dupont-de-ligonn%C3%A8s-are-%22wary-of-appearances%22.rJ7SQPtrH_.html
https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a33216440/dupont-de-ligonnes-family/
