Investigators are pursuing several lines of inquiry into the ‘violent’ deaths of Andrew and Dawn Searle, including whether they were tortured, murdered in a burglary gone wrong, or targeted by criminals
The mobile phones of a British couple found dead at their home in France are providing “vital clues” about how and why they died, according to detectives.
A device belonging to 65-year-old Andrew Searle – a former financial investigator who was involved in the fight against organised crime – is proving “particularly helpful”, said one.
Mr Searle’s hanged body was found last Thursday close to his wife, Dawn Searle, 56, who was apparently beaten to death at their property in the hamlet of Les Pesquiès, south of Villefranche-de-Rouergue.
Pathologists were due to carry out a post-mortem examinations on Monday, so as to establish definitive causes of death. Police technicians have meanwhile been examining all devices belonging to the couple, and leads are being followed up.
“There is a mine of information, and recent calls made by Mr Searle are providing vital clues,” said the investigating source.
It follows Antoine Da Silva, a neighbour of the couple, saying he saw Mr Searle making an agitated call in the days before he died. Mr Da Silva, 63, said: “He looked very worried. He said ‘I can’t speak with you I’m on the phone’ and he walked on immediately.”
Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, also saw the Searles acting unusually. He said: “I saw them the day before they were found – they were walking the dogs and Andrew was on the phone. He was very agitated, and he was arguing violently in English, he just waved at me and then carried on.”
Police have already questioned witnesses about Mr Searle’s concerning behaviour. CCTV footage is also providing vital clues, with detectives confident that any potential killer will have been picked up at some point by one of the scores of police, traffic and private cameras in the area.
Mr Searle was himself filmed in a tobacconist in Villefranche-de-Rouergue just before 6pm on Wednesday evening, hours before he died. His corpse was found hanging from a banister with a gag in his mouth, according to enquiry sources, while his wife was said to be naked and had suffered a serious head injury.
Jean-Sébastien Orcibal, the local major who married the couple just two years ago, said he was convinced they had been murdered, while dismissing the theory of ‘a burglary gone wrong’. Like many in the hamlet, Mr Orcibal said the couple also had “too much to live for” for one to commit suicide after murdering the other.
Another theory being considered by detectives is that the deaths related to Mr Searle’s long career as a counter-fraud specialist. He worked for private companies in Edinburgh, alongside the Serious Fraud Office and police as he clamped down on global syndicates involved in crimes such as money laundering.
This included work in ‘sanctions screening’, which is the process of checking individuals and groups who might be barred from dealing in the UK because of their links with terrorists and rogue nations, such as Russia.
Mr Searle, a Liverpool John Moores University graduate, took early retirement in 2015, and was thought to have encountered some financial worries, mainly relating to his pension. Publicly available financial documents in France show that a rental business he set up in Les Pesquiès was forced into liquidation in 2023.
Dawn Searle’s son from a previous marriage is Callum Kerr, 30, the former Hollyoaks actor, and he has asked that the family’s privacy is respected “during this difficult period”.
Nicolas Rigot-Muller, the Rodez prosecutor, is in charge of the investigation, with judicial police and gendarmes supporting him. He said: “Both died violent deaths, but I cannot yet firmly establish homicide.” Nobody has yet been arrested in connection with the deaths.
