[Music] [Music] 55 robert schumann boulevard located in the city of north in western france was home to the dupont de ligones family a mother a father their four children and two black labradors by all accounts they appear to be a completely normal upper middle class family they came from a respectable background and were actively involved in the local community they weren't the type of people to get involved in any sort of illicit activities nor did they break the law in april 2011 however that all changed when one of the most horrific crimes ever to have been committed in france took place 55 robert schuman boulevard which was once a family home adopted a grim moniker the house of terror xavier pierre-marie du pont de ligones the patriarch of the family was a 50 year old count who was a descendant of french aristocrats he was a salesman who had experienced some success in his own business endeavors xavier's 48 year old wife anyas odonger who he first met in the 1980s worked at a catholic school and was known to be very religious attending mass every sunday and running a bible study group xavier and anyas had a short-lived relationship in the 80s which abruptly ended when xavier decided to travel around the world upon returning to his hometown of versailles a year later xavier found anyas pregnant by another man with her first son artur despite it being very much frowned upon by the catholic community at the time xavier chose to marry anyas and agreed to raise artur as his own child the couple married in 1991 and between them they had three more children with artur nicola being the eldest he was 20 years old and working at a pizzeria at the time and was attending a private catholic college where he was studying i. t their second son thomas was 18 years old and was studying musicology with the couple's only daughter 16 year old anne being a grade a year 11 student at a private catholic high school she also spent some of her time modelling for mail-order catalogues the youngest of the family 13 year old benoit also attended the same high school as his sister anne and he himself like his brother thomas had a huge passion for music especially the drums life carried on as normal with both parents working their respective jobs and their children attending their various educational institutions nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary that was until the afternoon of the 11th of april 2011. neighbours began to grow concerned for the dupont league's family as their house stood eerily silent the home was oddly all shuttered up something which was very out of the ordinary even when the family went on holiday they never closed the window shutters a neighbor also noticed a note taped to the front door asking the mail carrier to not deliver any more mail to the property this in itself was very strange and after two days of no movement within the property concerned neighbours contacted authorities who subsequently arrived at the residence to see what was going on upon their arrival at the home on the 13th of april local police found the front door locked and nobody answered the door as a result a locksmith was contacted and changed the locks upon entering nothing appeared to have been out of place other than all of the beds having been stripped and some of the closets were open police concluded that the family had left the house of their own accord therefore there was no need to open a formal investigation all but one of the family cars a citroen c5 were parked in their usual spots what was odd however was that the citroen was far too small to facilitate two adults four children and two labradors there was no way they all traveled in the same vehicle in the days that followed the family's strange disappearance a number of typed letters were received by friends and relatives of the family allegedly from xavier and anjas explaining their absence though what was written truly baffled everyone the eight-page long letters claimed that xavier was a spy for the dea in the united states and that the entire family would be gone for a few years as xavier's incognito status had been exposed therefore he and his family had to flee the country as they would have potentially been left in danger had they remained in france the letters also spoke of changing identities under a witness protection programme and reiterated that they probably wouldn't have any contact with their extended family and friends at all in the near future furthermore xavier claimed that both black labradors who were adored by their children have been placed in a new home together the letter also detailed a number of tasks for several family members and friends to carry out mainly what to do with their affairs and property xavier also asked each recipient to tell people that the family had moved to australia following a job transfer and to keep what they had been told in this letter strictly secret letters of a similar nature were sent to anne and benoit's school as well as anjes's workplace and the landlords of both toma and artur's college accommodation initially those who were sent these letters didn't think too much of it xavier was an eccentric individual working for the dea genuinely seemed to be a possibility despite how far-fetched it sounded and nobody really doubted it at that point other than anjez's family they were left completely puzzled by the letter and subsequently sent it to the district attorney in nantes anjez's family found it beyond strange for the family to have simply got up and left france without saying anything they just knew something was awry on april the 15th 2011 four days after the neighbours initially contacted authorities with their concerns police returned 255 robert shuman boulevard to conduct further searches of the property during their search they found that many of the photo frames within the house had been emptied of their photographs but other than that nothing suspicious was found inside the home three further searches took place on the 18th 19th and 20th of april after anez's loved ones insisted that something was wrong a sixth search of the property was conducted on the 21st of april the same day a public appeal was launched and only then did police find something which chilled them to the bone whilst investigating the exterior of the property police uncovered a number of taped bin bags buried in a grave underneath the terrace upon investigating the grizzly find they discovered four sets of human remains and two sets of animal bones they had found the bodies of anes dupont de ligones and three of her four children artur anne and benoit the family's two black labrador retrievers were also buried in the same grave eighteen-year-old toma was buried in a separate grave close by with investigators firmly believing that thomas was killed sometime after his mother and siblings buried alongside each body was a religious item such as a candle or crucifix which seemed to suggest some sort of religious burial not to mention there was clearly an emotional connection between the victims and the perpetrator as they had clearly wanted their victims to have a religious burial police scoured the house and surrounding area looking for the last remaining family member xavier however he was nowhere to be found from that moment on xavier dupont de lignes was the prime suspect in his family's murder an international warrant was issued for the fugitive's arrest on the 10th of may 2011 a warrant which is still active today the media dubbed the schumann boulevard property as the house of terror and the house of horror but as a media storm ensued friends and family of xaviers were left puzzled they couldn't see how a typical family man could have committed such a heinous crime he spent much of his time helping others and it was evident that he adored his family above all else the family name was extremely important to him so why would he murder his own lineage xavier had also never been in any trouble with the law nor did he have any criminal connections many struggled to believe that xavier could have murdered and buried his family in the backyard of their home including his mother and sister according to them xavier had back issues that caused him a lot of bother where the bodies were buried in a hole underneath the terrace balcony it was very low down if xavier had attempted to bury them there it would have caused him an excessive amount of pain his mother and sister believed that the bodies in the backyard might not have even been the dupont de ligness family as they alleged that the descriptions of each body was inaccurate pointing the finger at a negligent autopsy was there some sort of cover-up did the family flee the country and fake their own deaths it seems very unlikely autopsies were conducted on the dupont de ligunes family and it was discovered that traces of sleeping pills were found in all four children's systems anes was not administered the drug likely because she used a sleep apnea machine during the night however the machine was switched off around the third of april she was most likely the first of the family to die the autopsy reports also revealed harrowing details about how each member of the family was shot with two bullets to the head using a .
22 long rifle this exact weapon had been a family heirloom which had been passed down to xavier from his father uber just three weeks prior to the family massacre in march 2011. it was initially theorised that all the victims were shot and killed in their own beds however there was no trace of any blood in the bedrooms nor were there any traces of blood at all throughout the family home even more shockingly forensic teams found no trace of any dna fingerprints or any fibers of any kind on the remains or the black bags that were found in the burial sites under the terrace balcony there was absolutely no evidence to indicate that xavier du ponte ligones was involved in the murder of his family nor was there any evidence to indicate an unidentified assailant was responsible for the crime authorities had no leads whatsoever and continued to hit dead ends in their investigations therefore they had to look back at the lives of the family themselves and what they discovered was beyond intriguing by all accounts appeared to have the perfect work and family life but not all was what it seemed to be xavier was not a successful businessman as he had claimed to be but rather a failed one in the early 2000s the family briefly relocated to florida where xavier began his american dream business ventures aiming to help foreigners with legal processes and admin in the us but unfortunately it didn't work out as well as he had hoped xavier had invested all of his money in his business which resulted in the dupont de ligones family returning home to france with very little money to their name as the years went by xavier's finances downward spiraled even more he claimed to own a number of other very successful businesses and he traveled all over france for business purposes however these companies were also hemorrhaging money xavier knew that his business would eventually go bust and as a result he would be forced to abandon everything he held dear including his home the fact that he was of french nobility and had a count title for him to lose everything would have been catastrophic for his reputation not to mention his family's reputation xavier was a very proud individual and to admit to his family that he was a failure was not something he would have willingly wanted to do he likely did not want to disgrace the dupont de ligone's name his father uber was lonely ill and practically bankrupt when he died in early 2011 and xavier likely didn't want to follow in his father's footsteps following the death of his father xavier was tasked with emptying uber's apartment during which xavier went searching for his father's count signet ring which was believed to be of significant value but he found nothing of worth it was at this time that xavier came into possession of his father's . 22 long rifle which he purchased a license for in early february xavier had no previous interest or experience with any sort of weapons though following his father's demise he regularly went to the shooting range sometimes even with toma and benoit he had even asked his instructor regarding silencers and eventually purchased one on the 12th of march along with rifle bullets a receipt for a diy store located over 200 miles away was found within the family home on the 19th of april showing purchases of black bags and adhesive plastic paving slabs all of which were used to conceal the bodies in early april xavier also bought cement a shovel a hole and four 10 kilogram bags of lime according to reports sunday the 3rd of april 2011 was the last time that the entire dupont de ligones family were seen alive that evening both parents xavier and anyas and three of their children went out for dinner at a local restaurant before heading to the cinema and returning home at around 10 37 pm xavier called his sister christine but there was no answer he left a message and told her about the restaurant and cinema trip and that he was about to put his kids to bed he ended the message with something rather chilling see you soon maybe the following day on monday april 4th friends of both 16 year old anne and 13 year old benoit became concerned when neither turned up for school that day they were apparently off sick however rather unusually neither ann or benoit answered any texts online messages or calls from their friends on the 5th of april witnesses saw xavier and his 18 year old son toma dining at a local restaurant though waiters noted that there was little conversation between them and they also noted that tomah began to feel ill towards the end of the meal he texted a friend late that night however he was never heard from again it is stated in some sources that bailiffs turned up at the home earlier that same day looking for 20 000 euro but nobody answered the door during that same week neighbours reported hearing the two family labradors barking for two consecutive nights however their barks soon ceased the following day the 6th of april artur's girlfriend knocked on the door as she was looking for him but nobody answered and there were no usual barks from the dogs it was theorized that anez artur ann and benoit were killed during the night of sunday april 3rd going into monday april 4th though some witnesses claimed to have seen anyas alive and well up until the 7th of april earlier on the 3rd of april toma had returned to university however on the 5th xavier contacted tomah and told him to return home as his mother had been in a bicycle accident and was in a coma in hospital tomah returned home later that evening where he was taken to a local restaurant for dinner then unknowingly administered sleeping pills and killed the exact timeline of events has never been fully established though this is what we do know the lease on the family home had been terminated all of the family's bank accounts were closed the education establishments all four children attended received final payment settlements anjez's employer was informed she was ill with gastroenteritis and was also told that she was moving to australia the house was empty the following day april 6th xavier was spotted outside the home by neighbours alone and on the seventh he was seen moving black bin bags into the boot of his metallic blue citroen c5 he then spent an entire week in the house before leaving nantes on april the 10th in his car heading southbound a speed camera caught his vehicle between nantes and la rochelle and his credit card had been used that day at a restaurant and hotel in la rochelle itself cctv also caught him at a cash point though it appeared that xavier wasn't trying to hide the fact no effort was made to conceal his identity nor his digital footprint many believed that these strange actions were of a man who was going to take his own life many family massacres end the same way with the perpetrator in nine out of ten cases committing suicide that one out of 10 end up going on the run the next day xavier left and continued south west through toulouse alley and la san sumer before arriving in rockebroon arjun on april the 14th a place he knew very well he had stayed at a number of hotels under the alias of laurel xavier eight days later on the 22nd of april after conducting various searches across the country french authorities located the missing metallic blue citroen c5 which belonged to xavier in the small parking lot of small formula one hotel in rockefeller sur surajan in south france interestingly to note in the typed letters to family and friends xavier had claimed that he had given the c5 to the father of one of artur's friends for car parts this too of course being untrue cctv revealed that xavier stayed at the formal uh hotel on the night of april 14th and footage showed xavier crossing at the parking lot of the hotel carrying a long black bag at the bottom of the bag a long object is observed and it was believed to be the rifle that killed the dupont de ligones family xavier then chillingly looked straight into the cctv camera almost as if he was saying goodbye before going on his way following this discovery authorities took to the nearby wilderness to look for xavier almost certain that he had taken his own life and they were looking for a body but nothing was found to indicate that this was the case he had simply vanished into thin air never to be seen or heard from again did xavier commit suicide or did he go on the run fooling investigators into thinking he had killed himself in order to buy himself more time to escape many believe that xavier somehow escaped to south america on a cargo ship possibly to somewhere like brazil or argentina he was multilingual speaking french english and spanish so he could potentially be anywhere in the world prior to his disappearance xavier had been in contact with an old girlfriend from germany known only as claudia but she has never been traced another line of inquiry was that xavier could have taken refuge at a monastery and one in rockebroon sir aja was raided in january 2018.
this was after some monks claimed to have seen him there but after investigating further police determined it to be a case of mistaken identity as the monk in question was found though he bore a startling resemblance to the missing fugitive since 2011 over 900 tips have been called into authorities and a number of leads have been processed but unfortunately every lead thus far has been fruitless various searches have been conducted throughout france in the likes of open water and in old mines with no results a number of human remains that have been found since 2011 in france have been tested through dna but no john doe has been found that has matched xavier dupont de ligones it was reported in one source that in july of 2015 a journalist was sent a photograph of artur and benoit with the words i'm still alive written on the back unfortunately there is no way for investigators to know for sure whether the inscription was written by xavier in october of 2019 a man was arrested at glasgow airport in scotland after an api alert was flagged up with a stolen french passport the individual in question changed their flight last minute from saturday the 12th to friday the 11th meaning french authorities missed the chance to intercept the man at paris's charles de gaulle airport where they departed the passenger was believed to possibly be xavier du ponto ligones and the man was then intercepted by scottish police upon landing in glasgow fingerprints were taken of the individual as was dna however the man was not zavier and was released without charge his passport was stolen in 2014 but he had managed to get a replacement which he had been using 11 years have passed and we still don't know what happened on that fateful day in april 2011.
