French investigators say ‘all hypotheses remain open’ in deaths of British couple | France

French police say they are still investigating the deaths of a British couple whose bodies were found in their rural home in Aveyron in the south of France last week.

The bodies of Andrew Searle, a retired fraud investigator, and his wife, Dawn, a project manager, were discovered at about 12.30pm on Thursday at their home in the village of Les Pesquiès.

On Tuesday, the public prosecutor’s office at the town of Rodez confirmed that the body of Dawn Searle, 56, was found “semi-naked” outside the property with head injuries caused by several blows from a “blunt and sharp object”. A jewellery box was found nearby.

The house appeared to have been rudimentarily searched; cash was found in the couple’s bedroom. The prosecutor said no trace had been found of the instrument used to inflict the blows on Dawn Searle.

When police arrived they searched the property and discovered Andrew Searle, 65, dead inside. The prosecutor said his body was found hanging, with no visible defence injuries.

French police say no theories are being excluded. Theories as to what took place include a burglary gone wrong or a possible domestic dispute leading to a murder-suicide.

“Further investigations (anatomo-pathological, toxicological) are under way in order to determine the precise circumstances of the deaths. Investigations are continuing, in particular to determine whether the tragedy was the result of a spousal crime followed by suicide, or whether a third party intervened,” the statement said.

The couple married in 2023 and had two children each from previous relationships. They had lived in the village for five years.

After the deaths, Dawn Searle’s son, the actor Callum Kerr, and her daughter, Amanda Kerr, and Andrew Searle’s children, Tom and Ella Searle, released a statement saying they would not be speaking to the media and appealing for privacy.

Callum Kerr starred in the sixth season of the Netflix drama Virgin River and has appeared in the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks. He walked his mother down the aisle at her wedding to Searle in 2023 and shared photos celebrating the occasion.

Earlier, the public prosecutor, Nicolas Rigot-Muller, said: “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.”