A British man Robert Lund is on trial in France accused of murdering his heiress wife in order to keep their remote 400 year old farmhouse in the Village of Rayssac in the Midi-Pyrenees and live off her life insurance.

Mr Lund aged 55 denies murdering his wife but had only reported her disappearance on the 1st of January 2000 three days after she went missing. He told police that he had last seen her three days earlier after when she had stormed out of the house on the 29th of December 1999 after the couple had rowed about her drinking.

My wife was in the habit of drinking heavily, which made her violent. On the day she disappeared she had had a lot to drink before going to see her friends.

A massive search of the area was undertaken but no trace of Evelyn was found until nearly two years later when a rider noticed a vehicle in a local lake, the Bancalie after a dry spell had caused the water level to drop by nearly 30 ft. The vehicle was recovered and Evelyn's decomposing body was found in the back.

Although Mr Lund had told police that he had not seen or heard from her since the row on the 29th of December detectives claim that she had visited friends in the area just afterwards and that their statements confirmed that she was wearing different clothing to those when her body was discovered suggesting that she must have returned to the farmhouse.

Mr Lund told the court that "My wife was in the habit of drinking heavily, which made her violent. On the day she disappeared she had had a lot to drink before going to see her friends." adding "Although I quickly adjusted to living in France, my wife had lots of problems because she was always thinking about her first husband and their children."

The court in Albi also heard that the Lunds had moved to France in 1997 after buying their farmhouse called Fin du Voyage (Journey's End), Evelyn had found it hard to settle in her new life and was unable to speak French, their relationship had soon become strained and Mrs Lund had telephoned a divorce helpline.

Police investigators believe that Mr Lund had murdered his wife and then tried to make it look like an accident in order to live off the proceeds of her life insurance. A post mortem examination revealed that Evelyn had died before her body had entered the lake indicating that she had already been smothered or suffocated. Forensic tests on Mrs Lunds vehicle a Toyota Landcruiser found that the gearbox was in neutral and the engine was running when it hit the water and that the drivers window had been left fully open despite the freezing weather conditions on the night of her disappearance.

The couple originally met in Lancashire where Mr Lund was working as a tree surgeon, Evelyn's first husband had recently died from lung cancer and she had been left well provided for. The couple married shortly after meeting and Evelyn's family have claimed that they saw Mr Lund as an "opportunist" who had married their mother as a way of moving up in the world, and that the marriage was often marred by blazing rows.


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