Étienne Macors (63) denied killing his partner when questioned directly by President Gorlé of the Namur Assize Court on Monday.
Marie Famrée, aged 62 at the time, was found hanging by a scarf from the door handle of her home on Rue des Sapins, Hogne (Somme-Leuze, Namur province) at around 13:00 on 28 March 2022.
The couple met in 2020 and he moved in with her in 2021. Famrée had reportedly felt harassed by Étienne shortly after meeting him. He allegedly exhibited violent behaviour and threatened suicide. The couple frequently argued, often fuelled by alcohol.
Famrée accused Macors of using her bank cards. Macors maintains, however, that "she never went shopping, so I took care of it."
Famrée reported a stolen bank card on 1 and 2 March 2022 and asked police to remove Macors from her home. "We separated on 3 March 2022, but she called me back the next day," the 63-year-old testified with irony.
Macors detailed that the day before the incident, tensions were high as he wanted to collect his belongings. Following an argument over a pot of tobacco, a friend of the couple contacted the police.
"I packed my bag and left, but then I returned. I pushed her, she fell to the ground, I took some tobacco and drove to the woods of Rochefort to end it. I never saw her again after that and I don't know what happened next," he said.
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Detectives at the scene observed lacerations on the victim's wrist suggesting a suicide attempt, but no sharp object was found that had been used to make these marks. However, Macors' DNA was identified on the inside of the victim's wrist and on the knot of the scarf used for the hanging.
Surveillance cameras at a railway station filmed Macors disposing of an object. When questioned, he replied that it was "certainly not a knife." The accused pointed out the use of a scarf in Famrée's suicide, even though at this stage of the investigation he was not supposed to have known of its existence.
'She'd had a very hard life'
As the accused went round in circles in his statements, President Gorlé asked outright if Macors had killed her. The accused replied that he had not: "I definitely did not hang her. I pushed her, but I never hit her." He could not explain the origin of the laceration marks on the victim's wrist or the fact that no sharp object had been found near her body, however.
After returning to the scene and discovering his partner hanging, without calling for help, Macors withdrew another €500 twice using her card. He then bought himself some trainers before leaving for Ostend and switching off his mobile phone. "She'd had a very hard life. She had told me several times that she wanted to end her life," he concluded.
