The body of teacher Deborah Pel, 45, was discovered in her Audi SUV after she allegedly murdered her three young children, leaving their bodies for their grandparents to stumble upon the horrific scene
The mother who killed her own three children whose bodies were found by their grandparents also left a note at the scene of horror, it has been revealed.
Deborah Pel fled into the mountains following the mass slaying at the family’s home in Taninges in the French Alps and her own body was later discovered just across the Swiss border.
Her disappearance following the fatal stabbing of her three children – aged two, 11 and 13 – on Tuesday triggered a huge manhunt. The 45-year-old French-Swiss teacher left only a note behind after fleeing in the same Audi SUV that she was eventually found dead in, according to French daily Le Dauphiné Libéré.
It was initially reported her partner, the childrens’ father, was the one left to discover the bodies, but it was their grandparents who stumbled upon the gruesome scene at the property 10 miles from the border with Switzerland.
Before the discovery of the woman’s body, around 60 French Gendarmes had been involved in the foot search and were supported by helicopters and dive teams. Swiss authorities had been involved in the search after investigators requested their help due to the suspect’s dual citizenship.
With a question mark remaining over the mother’s motive, police are carrying out interviews with the family’s relatives.
Pel had worked as a teacher at a school in a nearby town. She was transferred from Adelin-Malgrand school in Samoëns after the parents of her students started a petition for her to be moved because she was allegedly too strict. The mother was said to be a member of the Samoëns municipal harmony, and was treasurer of the town’s music school. In 2022, she was given an award for her dedication to music after playing the flute for three decades.
The children were part of a blended family, with the mother being the blood relative of the girl and the 11-year-old boy. The father – who is yet to be named publicly – was related to the youngest child. The mother is said to have scribbled a letter and left it at the bloody scene before making her escape into the mountains that surround the quaint town of Taninges in the French Alps near France’s border with Switzerland.
The children’s deaths are being treated as an “intentional homicide” by police with the investigation handed over to the Bonneville public prosecutor’s office.
Boris Duffau, Bennoville’s district attorney, said initial findings indicated children had suffered “stab wounds”. He said: “Autopsies and additional expert assessments will be carried out quickly by the Grenoble Institute of Forensic Medicine (IML), but initial findings have shown that the victims have stab wounds.”
It comes after two young children, aged four and 13 months old, were found decapitated in a bathtub in Guadeloupe, a French territory. Echoing the shocking Alps discovery, the father was the one to find their corpses and the prime suspect was the mother.
