Jogger finds card belonging to member of missing French family
A jogger on Wednesday found a pair of trousers with the national health card of a member of a missing French family in a pocket, a source close to the probe said.
The items belonging to Charlotte Troadec, 18, were found early Wednesday in a town some 280 kilometres (175 miles) northwest of the family home in Orvault, a suburb of the western city of Nantes, the source said.
Investigators were sealing off the area in Dirinon where the discovery was made, 13 days after Charlotte, her brother Sebastien, 21, and their 49-year-old parents Pascal and Brigitte disappeared from their home.
A judicial probe into murder, abduction and illegal confinement was opened on Monday after the authorities were alerted last week to the disappearance of the four.
Police launched a vast search effort, saying in a bulletin dated February 24 that Sebastien was suspected of "putting in place a macabre plan aimed at snuffing out the members of his family and maybe himself."
Bloodstains were found throughout the two-storey house in Orvault, including on Sebastien's cellphone and on Brigitte's watch, as well as efforts to wipe some of them away.
Investigators returned to the house on Wednesday with "very sophisticated" scientific and technical equipment to search for further clues, Nantes prosecutor Pierre Sennes said.
Wearing white forensic suits, they were seen entering and leaving the mystery house in Orvault where a police security zone was set up early Wednesday.
Traces of blood from the father, mother and the son have been identified but so far there are no signs of the daughter's blood, Sennes said.
He said earlier that investigators had been unable to find Sebastien's car, while the parents' car was parked outside the house at the time of the disappearance.
No toothbrushes or hairbrushes were found in the house, and the beds had been stripped, with some sheets drying on an indoor rack.
Food was going off in the refrigerator and there were dishes in the sink, according to Sennes, who said it was as "if the life of the house was frozen in time".
Sebastien's cellphone was the last to be switched off, according to Sennes.
The mother and daughter had on February 16 reported the fraudulent use of Charlotte's bank card, Sennes said Wednesday.