“He strangled her with the dog's leash”: in Montpellier, the nurse still denies femicide and speaks of suicide

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Suicide or femicide ? Edouard Jouve, 68, a former psychiatric nurse, incarcerated for 18 months, denies having killed the woman who wanted to leave him for her lover, a freediving teacher. The events took place in Montpellier on January 25, 2023.

Edouard Jouve, 68, gray hair and goatee, eagle eyes, assures us: “I am someone you can trust, I worked for 38 years at the Montpellier University Hospital. I discovered Sophie hanging when I got home… And I've been in prison for a year and a half and I shouldn't be there!”.

This former psychiatric nurse will nevertheless remain behind bars after the Montpellier Court of Appeal refused his first request for release on Friday.

The sixty-year-old firmly denies having covered up his partner's murder as a suicide. A terrible femicide of which the police, the prosecution and especially Sophie Cals' family and friends are totally convinced, who do not believe for a second that she could have killed herself on January 25, 2023.

The autopsy does not rule anything out

That evening, Édouard Jouve called the firefighters: when he came back from walking their dog, he found the woman he had shared his life with for ten years, hanging from a leash on a hook holding a mirror in their bedroom. He tore off the hook and tried to revive her.

Four days later, the victim, 46, died in hospital. But the autopsy did not rule out either “suicidal gesture” or the intervention of a third party. There are no traumatic injuries on the body, "nor any traces of a struggle", recalls Me Baptiste Lala, who is defending the accused. However, the deceased's relatives believe that she was strangled.

“He actually, in cold blood, disguised the crime scene as a suicide after strangling his wife with the dog's leash”, asserts Louis Dolez, civil party.

A lover who is a freediving teacher and a divorce

Why this conviction ? Because she had no reason to take action. Her partner brought forward the visit, the same day, of an insurer for the retirement savings contract of the one who was also a nurse. She would have been furious to learn that she would only receive 800 euros per month. A somewhat short motive when reading the file developed by the court of appeal.

The couple was struggling and above all, Sophie Cals intended to leave her husband to join a new partner, her freediving teacher with whom she had fallen in love. When questioned, the latter considered suicide "impossible".

"He explained that she was under your influence and that she intended to divorce", recalled an advisor.

“I love you and see you tomorrow”

“Today, it's on the wire, I love you, see you tomorrow”, she even wrote to her lover a few hours before the drama…

“I didn't know about the affair”, maintains Édouard Jouve who admits that the divorce was in progress. He says he discovered the existence of the freediving teacher by searching his wife's phone, but after her death.

He still sent his rival, during Sophie Cals's dying period, a terrible message in reference to Jacques Mayol, the famous freediver who had killed himself, evoking “your little protected mermaid didn't succeed.”

During the funeral, all the witnesses also speak of the accused's odious behavior, speaking of an inevitable act of suicide. As in the funeral home: “she will be able to donate her organs, not her brain”, he says coldly. The firefighters, the first on the scene, also spoke of a "marked indifference", when they arrived at the home.

"I come back from walking my dog ​​and I find my wife hanging"

"They talk about my behavior, but I come back from walking my dog ​​and I find my wife hanging! “One can understand that I am completely off the mark” , defends Édouard Jouve, described as angry, narcissistic and manipulative.

And his lawyer also mentioned the victim's Asperger-type autistic traits, who was being treated for them: “She was on anxiolytics and antidepressants”, he said to suggest the possibility of a suicidal act.

She did not hang herself without a booster seat

But the defense still stumbles on a crucial point noted by the investigators: because of the length of the leash and the size of the victim, she could not have hanged herself without a booster seat. During the reconstruction, the medical examiner thus considered that the hanging was not compatible with the gestures described by the accused.

The defense now argues that the leash found was not the right one and that disorder could have been caused by the emergency services in the apartment. A second reconstruction was requested at the beginning of the summer. On this point, Édouard Jouve won his case: the judge did not object.

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