Man on trial for 'barbecue wife killing'
2011-02-21 20:27
Rennes - A French father of seven is to go on trial on Tuesday for allegedly murdering his wife, burying her in the garden and then two years later trying to burn her remains on the family barbecue.
Benoit Piet reported his wife Adeline, 34, missing in 2006, sparking a massive police search operation around their home in the village of La Gouesniere, near Saint-Malo on France's picturesque Brittany coast.
Piet, 38 at the time, initially explained his wife's disappearance to police by saying she had wanted a change of scenery, a judicial source told AFP.
But when he was brought in for questioning two years later, he admitted to police that he had buried his wife in the garden, then exhumed her to burn the remains on the barbecue as police closed in.
Piet has consistently denied murdering his wife. He said initially that she had committed suicide, then that unknown attackers had killed her and threatened their children if he spoke about the murder.
Piet eventually admitted that his wife died during a domestic dispute while he was drunk but stopped short of saying he himself killed her.
The couple had been in the process of getting divorced when Adeline died.
