French police are investigating the deaths of a retired British couple who were found in their renovated rural home in Aveyron, south-west France.
The bodies of Andrew Searle, a retired fraud investigator, and his wife, Dawn, were discovered at about 12.30pm on Thursday at their home in the village of Les Pesquiès, south of Villefranche-de-Rouergue.
According to local media reports, Dawn Searle was found naked outside the property with a serious head injury and jewellery strewn around her. She was reportedly found by a neighbour, who thought she had passed out, and called the emergency services.
When police arrived they searched the property and discovered Andrew Searle dead inside. He was reportedly found hanging with a gag in his mouth. Police say no theories are being excluded for the motives of the apparent killings. Theories include a burglary gone wrong or a possible domestic dispute.
The couple married in 2023 and had two children each from previous relationships. They had lived in the village for a decade.
A forensic pathologist was flown in by helicopter to carry out an initial examination of the bodies. The results of autopsies were not expected before Monday.
The public prosecutor Nicolas Rigot-Muller said on Friday: “Both died violent deaths, but I cannot establish that either was a homicide. All hypotheses remain open.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Andrew Searle retired in 2015 after a career in financial crime prevention.
After quitting as a consultant in financial crime assurance at Barclays in Glasgow, Searle posted that he was “enjoying life in rural France – renovating!”. He previously worked for 21 years at Standard Life, in Edinburgh, where he was responsible for the bank’s anti-crime initiatives across Europe.
A claim made by MailOnline that police were investigating the possibility that the couple were murdered by UK-based criminals has not been confirmed by the French authorities.
Searle went to a grammar school in Steyning, West Sussex, and graduated from Liverpool John Moores University.
A spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British couple who died in France and are liaising with the local authorities.”
