THE BACA CASE: A BODY IN THE ATTIC | Enquêtes criminelles | W9

At the height of summer, 2014, the despairing Baca family puts up posters in the streets of Toulouse and appeals for witnesses: Where is Laurent Baca, their son and brother? The 37-year-old father apparently disappeared into thin air. When his partner, Edith, goes to the police to report that Laurent is missing she tells them that Laurent slept on the living room couch after a row. That is where says she saw him for the last time early the next morning when she left to drive their children to playschool. For three months the plot thickens and the investigation gets bogged down. Laurent Baca’s parents, however, are suspicious. They are mystified by their daughter-in-law’s behavior. She takes no part in the search, asks no questions and acts as if the situation were perfectly normal. So could Edith Baca have something to hide? On November 20 2014 when the police arrive with a search warrant, Edith makes a staggering revelation: I’m a monster he’s up there!” In the attic, above the children’s bedroom, the police find the remains of Laurent Baca buried under several pounds of “quick cement”. Edith soon cracks and confesses to her crime: she claims that on that night of August 2014, after yet another row, Laurent grabbed his gun and threatened to kill her. She says she dived at him and tried to grab the gun. That’s when the shot was fired. It hit Laurent directly in the head. In her panic, Edith says that she first decided to hide the body under the pergola in the garden and that she then hauled it up the ladder to the attic. And covered it with a layer of cement… However, despite her confession, doubts remain. How could this mere slip of a woman of only 5’4″ move her husband’s dead body by herself? A fresh witness statement adds weight to the theory of a crime of passion. Investigators discover that for several months Edith has had a lover. Accident, self-defense or cold-blooded crime? These are all at issue in this case…”