A HOMELESS man has been charged with murder after four “partially naked” bodies were retrieved from the river Seine near Paris.
The bodies were discovered in the southeastern suburb of Choisy-le-Roi after a passenger on a passing train noticed one floating on the water, subsequently notifying the police.
The suspect has not yet been named but has been described as a “homeless man aged about 20” by the prosecution.
He was detained on Wednesday and has been placed in pre-trial detention.
His defence lawyer Antoine Ory said: “My client is being questioned in relation to these four murders and is being held in custody.
“He has maintained his right to silence during his questioning, in front of the investigating magistrate.”
He had also been detained once on August 5 in possession of documents that turned out to belong to one of the victims.
The four victims included an Algerian (21), a Tunisian (26), a Frenchman (46), and another Algerian also aged 21. They were reportedly seen on the river path, an area where the suspect was known to frequent.
Prosecutors stated the man refused to answer questions about the claims, but the investigation unveiled a link between the victims and the suspected perpetrator.
The witness sounded the alarm after making the gruesome discovery on the RER C train at around 1pm last Wednesday.
A source close to the investigation previously told Actu17: “There are three men of African descent and a fourth of North African descent.
“At this stage, four separate death investigations have been opened.
“There is currently no evidence to suggest that all four victims died at the same time.”
“An autopsy will be performed this Thursday morning and will shed more light on the circumstances of their deaths.
“There is no evidence to suggest a criminal investigation at this stage.”
Two of the corpses were found partially naked while two showed signs of strangulation, prosecutors said.
They also noted that while the body identified by the witness was “relatively well-preserved,” the other three were in “a very advanced state of decomposition” at the time they were retrieved.
The corpses have been delivered to the Paris Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification and autopsies, as they had apparently been submerged in the river for multiple days.
Cops were joined by river brigade authorities who scrambled to pull the bodies out of the water.
Authorities reportedly found the second corpse around 50 metres away from the first one.
A third was discovered mangled in branches and a fourth drifting with the current.
While the bodies were all in a similar location, the prosecutor said this could be because of “the configuration of the river at that location”.
A 24-year-old was detained at the Criminal Investigations Department in Paris on Wednesday morning, charged with several murders, though the exact number remains unspecified.
