‘Feeling of betrayal’
Carter’s husband, Alan Carter, who is in South Africa, said he was unaware of the relationship until it was publicly announced by French authorities and has described “a feeling of complete betrayal”.
Police are pursuing the theory that the killer may have harboured a grudge against either the couple or Karen Carter individually.
The Daily Telegraph has found footage of Carter and Guerrier dancing with each other at a party hosted outside the Cafe Village, an eatery and community hub in Tremolat where they regularly volunteered.
In a video posted on December 13, 2024, on to the Cafe Village Facebook page, Carter, wearing a black top and cream trousers can be seen singing along to Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive with Guerrier, wearing a green jumper and dark trousers, next to a dozen or so locals.
The video suggests their relationship may have been publicly known among locals despite Carter’s husband being unaware.
In a video from a separate party hosted at the Cafe Village in October 2022, Carter can be seen swaying to music behind the bar with Guerrier.
Carter is seen holding a glass of white wine next to Guerrier as they dance and sing along to Nancy Sinatra’s 1966 classic These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.
Carter was of dual South African and British nationality.
Alan Carter told The Times: “What has come out of this investigation has confirmed a relationship I did not want to believe and that had been denied to me repeatedly by my wife.”
Alan Carter, who has three children with Karen Carter, said he had recently challenged her about the amount of time she was spending with Guerrier, who had hosted both of them several times at his farmhouse on the edge of the village.
“I told her that the gossip was tarnishing her reputation but she batted it away and said there was nothing in it,” he told the newspaper.
The Telegraph understands that Alan Carter will be arriving in Tremolat with Karen’s four children on Tuesday.
Having found Carter as she lay dying from stab wounds, Guerrier attempted CPR and alerted emergency services. He was questioned by police and quickly released without charge. There is no suggestion he was responsible for her death.
He has declined to comment on the case.
A 69-year-old woman, who lives near Carter’s farmhouse, was arrested by police but released two days later when investigators examined her schedule.
Neighbours and close friends have maintained the suspected murder was a “crime of passion” and not the work of a random killer drifting through the village of 600 people.
The Telegraph was told that Carter’s family knew nothing of her death until they came across online messages of condolences written by local friends on the Facebook page of Cafe Village Tremolat.
A distressed cousin had rung a British expatriate in Tremolat, who had helped run the gite for 13 years, the day after the murder, to find out what had occurred on that fateful evening.
The gardener and property manager shared how he had to break the news of the death to Carter’s family as they had not been informed by French police.
“I just said ‘I am very sorry, I don’t know if you have heard but it’s Karen who unfortunately passed away’,” he explained to journalists from the driveway of his farmhouse.
“Then they asked me if I knew what happened, and I said I didn’t know anything about it.”
