A couple in their seventies and their 35-year-old daughter were found dead from gunshot wounds at their home in a village in the Hautes-Alpes region on Sunday, according to the Gap prosecutor’s office.
Preliminary findings from criminal investigation technicians, a forensic doctor, and initial witness statements suggest the two women were murdered and the perpetrator then took his own life, said prosecutor Marion Lozac’hmeur in a statement.
According to Lozac’hmeur, the investigation is ongoing to better understand the circumstances and context of the events. Autopsies are scheduled for Wednesday.
The investigation has been assigned to the research brigade of the Gap gendarmerie company.
The bodies of the couple and their daughter, who was born in 1990, were discovered at their residence in the small community of La Bâtie-Neuve on Sunday evening by a family member, the same source reported.
The police, gendarmerie, forensic technicians, and a forensic doctor immediately arrived at the scene.
Located in the southern Hautes-Alpes near ski resorts and the tourist-attracting Lake Serre-Ponçon, La Bâtie-Neuve has around 2,600 inhabitants. The locality and its hamlets cover extensive areas at altitudes ranging from 800 to 2,400 metres.
