One in all the last people to see Dawn Searle alive says she was ‘smiley’ and positive just hours before her and her husband’s bodies were found at their home in France.
The mum-of-two’s was found together with husband Andrew within the small village of Les Pesquies, north of Toulouse, every week ago.
Police probing the couple’s deaths said they’ve not ruled out foul play by a 3rd party, and autopsies for the pair were carried out on Monday.
They revealed Dawn had died from ‘several’ blows to the pinnacle from a blunt and sharp object. Andrew’s death was confirmed as from hanging.
Last night an area who works at a close-by fireplace shop said Dawn visited to book appointments for herself and villagers around 18 hours before the couple died, the Sun reports.
She told how Dawn, a project manager, was in good spirits despite feeling unwell with the flu, adding: ‘Her mood was excellent, [and she was] smiley.’
The shopkeeper, who knew the couple well, said Dawn, 56, and Andrew, 62, were a ‘very generous and united couple’ who gave up their Sundays to show their French neighbours to talk English freed from charge.
One other local businessman described the pair because the ‘perfect couple’ who were at all times involved in social events held in the neighborhood.
The mechanic said he commonly serviced Dawn’s white Dacia Duster SUV and enjoyed bantering with Andrew about England playing rugby against France.
Last week CCTV footage looked as if it would show Andrew buying a lottery ticket within the hours before his body was discovered.
Officials are also considering whether the pair could have died through murder-suicide.
An announcement from prosecutor Nicolas Rigot-Muller said: ‘Further examinations (anatomical-pathological, toxicological) are ongoing to find out the precise circumstances of the deaths. Investigations are continuing, notably to find out whether the tragedy resulted from a marital crime followed by a suicide or from the intervention of a 3rd party.’
The prosecutor said emergency services rushed to the couple’s distant home after being alerted by a neighbour.
There they found Dawn’s body ‘partially undressed, in front of her home’ before discovering Andrew’s body ‘hanging from a radiator’ contained in the property.
It adds the pair’s home appeared to have been ‘roughly searched,’ with money present in their bedroom and a jewelry box near Dawn’s body. But there was no sign she had been sexually assaulted and no weapons ‘able to inflicting [her] injuries’ were found.
The couple married in 2023, with Dawn’s son Callum, a former Hollyoaks star, walking her down the aisle. Andrew is alleged to have moved his family to France a decade ago.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it’s supporting the family and liaising with local authorities.
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