By SABRINA PENTY, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER
Published: 20:06 GMT, 12 November 2025 | Updated: 20:41 GMT, 12 November 2025
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Cops investigating the murder of a British woman who was stabbed to death in France’s Dordogne region have reportedly probed the builders who had been renovating her house.
Mother-of-four Karen Carter, 65, was found sprawled on the driveway of her property in the village of Trémolat, east of Bordeaux, after returning from a wine tasting on April 29.
Despite the best efforts of medics, she died at the scene from severe blood loss having been knifed in her chest, groin, arm and leg.
Police have been investigating Carter’s death and according to French newspaper Le Parisien, the background checks into the builders who had been doing works on her holiday home were part of what remains a wide-ranging probe.
The builders are not being treated as suspects, however.
Police have been following multiple lines of inquiry, but have reportedly been struggling to find hard evidence.
Officers are understood to have seized two knives during a raid on the home of a man in a neighbouring village, but there was no proof of his involvement in the murder.
Cops had also found DNA samples in Carter’s car that they have been unable to identify, according to local media reports.
Karen Carter, a 65-year-old married mother of four, was found outside a property she ran in the village of Trémolat, east of Bordeaux
Cops investigating Carter’s murder have reportedly probed the builders who had been renovating her house (pictured)
Carter, a British-South African national, was stabbed eight times in the frenzied attack outside a guesthouse she ran in the quaint French village with her husband Alan, who had been at home in South Africa at the time.
She had just returned from an evening of wine tasting held at the home of 74-year-old Jean-Francois Guerrier, who she had begun a romantic relationship with in recent months.
Guerrier, who discovered her body, was detained briefly by police in the early stages of the inquiry before he was released without charge.
Mr Carter, 65, said he had been unaware of his wife’s love affair with Guerrier.
Speaking to The Times shortly after his wife’s murder, Mr Carter said that the police investigation had confirmed ‘a relationship I did not want to believe, and that had been denied to me repeatedly by my wife’.
He said confirmation of the affair had left him with ‘a feeling of complete betrayal’.
Mr Carter revealed he had challenged his wife about the amount of time she was spending with retired businessman, Mr Guerrier.
He said there were tensions between the pair over where they should spend their later lives since purchasing their Trémolat home in 2009.
Karen pictured with her husband Alan, who spoke of ‘a feeling of complete betrayal’ upon hearing that his wife had been having an affair before her brutal murder
Mrs Carter had become engrossed in village life and the pair grew more distant – spending most of their time on different continents.
She worked closely with Mr Guerrier behind the bar at Café Village pouring drinks for villagers.
Marie-Laure Autefort, 69, Carter’s neighbour, was also arrested and released without charge when she was able to prove to them that she was elsewhere during the murder.
Speaking to the newspaper, Mr Carter added: ‘It was so obvious that Jean-François had an affection for Karen, and I feel he took advantage of the time we were spending apart.
‘I felt the Café Village attracted a lonely bunch of people who had nothing else to throw their lives into. I felt they were having a strong influence on Karen, and she really did not know that much about them.’
Mr Carter was last with his wife three weeks ago, when she visited South Africa with Trémolat’s over-fifties women’s football team.
He last spoke to her on the morning of her death and only learnt about it the next afternoon from a cousin who had read a post on Café Village’s Facebook page.
