Jean-François Guerrier, a 75-year-old retired executive, drove to the home of his lover Karen Carter after she failed to call him on the night of 29 April 2025. He found her lying in a pool of blood next to her car in the Dordogne village of Trémolat where she had lived for over a decade. Emergency workers declared the 65-year-old British-South African mother-of-four dead at the scene.
More than a year later, on 2 July 2026, a 70-year-old woman who was a close neighbour of Carter was formally charged with her murder. The suspect, originally from Trémolat, had been taken into custody on 30 April 2025 during a preliminary investigation but was released without charge. The investigating judge in Périgueux, Jacques-Édouard Andrault, said the investigations as part of the judicial inquiry opened on 7 May 2025 led to the indictment. She is now under judicial supervision, and the charge of premeditated murder carries a life sentence.
“A 70-year-old woman charged with murder of British expat Karen Carter, found stabbed in France after love triangle.”
Guerrier, who had hosted a wine-tasting party at Café Village Trémolat earlier that evening, told police to investigate Marie-Laure Autefort, the woman now charged. He described her as a woman who had fallen madly in love with him the previous year, divorcing her husband after decades of marriage, and was “terribly frustrated” when her feelings were not reciprocated. Autefort provided an alibi and denies any wrongdoing. Her brother, Philippe Monribot, confirmed she was in love with Guerrier and upset by his affair with Carter, but called the thought of murder “preposterous”. He claimed police had “messed up at the start of the investigation”.
Carter, who ran two gites in Trémolat, was stabbed multiple times in what an autopsy described as a “frenzied attack”. Eight serious wounds were noted to her chest, abdomen and forearm, as well as superficial ones. She died from severe blood loss. She had been preparing to divorce her husband, Alan Carter, who was in South Africa at the time. Alan described his wife as an outgoing, friendly person who “wouldn’t hurt a fly” and had a “good heart”. Friends said she was a “strong businesswoman” and “didn’t have any enemies”.
The charge raises questions about what drove a close neighbour to allegedly carry out such a violent act – and whether the police investigation, which saw Guerrier and Autefort arrested then released before the charge, could have been handled differently.