French police are investigating the death of a British couple who were discovered dead in their home in France.
The bodies of Andrew and Dawn Searle were found around 12:20 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 6, at their home in the village of Les Pesquiès, after a neighbor alerted police when they didn’t show up for a planned dog walk, the BBC reported.
Villefranche-de-Rouergue Mayor Jean-Sébastien Orcibal told a French television station that the couple’s death was a homicide, per the outlet.
Neighbors told The Telegraph that Dawn was found naked outside the home. She had suffered head injuries and pieces of her jewelry were strewn around her.
Authorities have declined to discuss the case.
“I am waiting to know the date and the result of the autopsies, as well as what comes back from the initial investigations, so that I can share tangible information,” Public prosecutor Nicolas Rigot-Muller said in a statement, per the Scotsman.
Callum Kerr.
Courtesy of Netflix
Andrew, a retired fraud investigator, and Dawn, who worked in project management, had retired to France about 10 years earlier, according to the Scotsman.
Dawn is the mother of Virgin River and Monarchactor Callum Kerr, per BBC.
Kerr walked his mother down the aisle when she married Andrew in 2023 in France.
“Not many people can say they walked their own mother down the aisle,” he said on social media, per BBC. “What a pleasure. I love you mum.”
Orcibal told The Telegraph that the couple “had a very rich social life.”
“These were people who were very well-known in the neighborhood,” he said. “They were British but they really wanted to integrate into local life.”
“They had two pedigree dogs that they walked along the river every day. And every time they bumped up into someone, more than a quick ‘bonjour’, they would stop and talk. They were very kind and courteous.”
