TRIAL: THE TOULOUSE CHOPPER | M6 | 66 minutes

Three years ago, in May 2016, a macabre discovery sent the whole of Toulouse into shock: a woman’s leg and then two female arms emerge from the Canal du Midi. The Crime Squad very quickly makes the connection with Maryline Planche, 52, who had been reported missing just three days earlier. On the face of it, Maryline, a counsellor with a handicapped persons support association, had no enemies, except, perhaps, one colleague at work: a certain Sophie Masala. Over the previous year, people at the association had noticed that the relationship between the two women was dire. Sophie Masala, married and a mother, described as loving and perfectly normal, is questioned. To the police she confesses and describes in great detail the chilling scenario that she created to get rid of her colleague and dispose of her body in various parts. Why did a banal rivalry at work turn into butchery? That is what the trial that opens this week in Toulouse must bring to light. Sophie Masala is accused of second-degree murder. Who is this woman of 55, the mother of two children, without any history of crime? How could a woman, perfectly well integrated, an employee in an association assisting handicapped persons, go over the edge and commit such a horror?