Detectives are hunting for the killer of a British expat who was stabbed to death outside her country home.
Idyllic village life in Tremolat in the Dordogne area of France was shattered when Karen Carter was discovered viciously stabbed outside her house last week.
The 65-year-old had been stabbed several times over her chest, groin, arm and leg as she was returning from a village wine tasting with friends.
The mum-of-four had tried to defend against the ‘frenzied attack,’ which left her with catastrophic wounds, including to her aorta, the autopsy found.
Now the investigators believe her killer might have been motivated by a grudge.
She was found critically injured by Jean-Francois Guerrier, 74, a friend she had reportedly promised to call when she got home safe.
When the call never arrived, Jean-Francois drove to her house, where he discovered her in a pool of blood near the holiday properties Karen rented with her husband, MailOnline reports.
A friend described Karen as ‘a strong businesswoman who had an air of authority about her.’
She claimed Karen was ‘trying to divorce her husband in South Africa but he wasn’t keen on that.’
The friend told the Mail on Sunday: ‘Karen had apparently been in a relationship with Jean-Francois Guerrier for a few weeks. It was really early days.
‘By all accounts, she was very happy in that new relationship but she kept it quiet and was quite modest about it.’
The pair had been in a relationship for ‘several weeks,’ the state prosecutor also said, while another friend denied the romantic affair as ‘nonsense’ and that ‘everyone is friends with Jean-Francois in this village.’
She said her friend ‘didn’t have any enemies.’
However, the investigation is focusing on people who knew Karen, as she might have been killed by someone who might have been after either her or Jean-Francois, The Telegraph reports.
Sylvie Martins-Guedes, the lead prosecutor, said the probe is now focusing on anyone who knew the pair and ‘may have been after’ them.
Karen was married to Alan Carter, a former London Stock Exchange trader who lived at their family home in South Africa.
He has also insisted that his wife and Jean-Francois, a former director at Fujitsu Services, were friends.
Officers were seen looking for the murder weapon around half a mile from her country house on Saturday afternoon.
A 69-year-old woman from the village was arrested on Thursday, but she was released without a charge two days later after detectives examined her schedule, according to The Telegraph.
Karen was an avid football player and she was part of a local club called Les Reines Du Foot.
The club said on an Instagram post on Wednesday: ‘We are deeply saddened by the passing of Karen, our friend and soccer queen, who leaves a huge void in our hearts. Our thoughts go out to her loved ones.’
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