Mystery shrouds retired couple Dawn and Andrew Searle’s final hours in their tranquil French home.
Former criminal investigator Andrew, 62, and his wife Dawn, the mother of ex-Hollyoaks actor Callum Kerr, were killed in tragic circumstances last week. The British couple, who permanently moved to France, seemingly lived an idyllic life in the small hamlet of Les Pesquies, located around 50 miles from Toulouse, with neighbours remembering them as “lovely” and “very nice”.
But on Thursday, February 7, they were devastatingly both found dead at their home with local authorities stating that it was “clearly a homicide”. Andrew and Dawn tied the knot in September 2023 with Netflix star Callum walking his mother, 56, down the aisle. Almost a week after their sudden deaths, prosecutors have said they are keeping all lines of inquiry open.
On Friday, investigators revealed the disturbing circumstances in which Mr Searle’s body was found – hanged inside the house with a gag in his mouth. There was no gun or knife nearby, suggesting he may have suffered a horrifying death by torture, French police said. His wife Dawn was found nearby, naked and with a wound to the head. Her body was lying by the front door, just in front of the house, with jewellery scattered around her. It is believed that the way their bodies were discovered suggest the victims may have been trying to escape when killed by an unidentified intruder or intruders.
In an update today, prosecutor Nicolas Rigot-Miller said this morning: “It’s very open. It’s far too early for me to say anything, we have to keep our eyes peeled. We’re not favouring any direction at the moment.” It comes after Andrew’s grieving 88-year-old father, Fred Searle, put it: “We’ve got thousands of questions and very few answers.” So, what do we know about their deaths?
CCTV footage
Investigators are hoping that CCTV footage filmed leading up to the horror discovery will help solve the tragic mystery. French authorities are confident that if there is a perpetrator involved, they will have been picked up on cameras in the area.
At the moment, CCTV footage of Andrew, taken the day before his death, has been shared. The clip shows the British expat buying a bar of chocolate and two Euro Lottery tickets from a tobacconist on Wednesday, shortly before 6pm. The shopkeeper, Isabelle Palazy, 58, said: “I just couldn’t believe it when I heard the news. He and Dawn were regular customers.
“He would come in every day and buy Fortuna Blue cigarettes. That day he came in just before I was closing and he seemed perfectly happy, he was relaxed and he chatted and bought some chocolate and two lottery tickets. Thinking that they were to die less than 24 hours later makes me go cold, I just can’t believe it. They were a lovely couple, always happy and chatting and they spoke reasonably good French. He was working on his house, and he would come and buy chocolate bars here, KitKat and Kinder were his favourite.”
Mobile phones
Andrew and Dawn’s mobile phones are being examined and are said to be providing “vital clues” about how and why they died, according to detectives. A device belonging to Andrew, who worked in the fight against organised crime, is proving “particularly helpful”, said one. “There is a mine of information, and recent calls made by Mr Searle are providing vital clues,” said the source.
Horror scene
The couple’s bodies were tragically discovered around midday on Thursday after they failed to turn up for a dog walk with their neighbours as planned.
It’s believed the way their bodies were found would indicate that the couple may have been attempting to escape when they were killed. Speaking with French publication La Dépêche, a source close to the investigation shared: “The wife’s body was first discovered, completely naked, in front of the door of the house. Around the unfortunate woman, jewellery was found scattered, testifying to a great disorder. In the house, the husband’s body was discovered hanging with a gag stuck in his mouth.”
Mayor Orcibal has previously stated that this was not a case of “burglary gone wrong”, as had been previously speculated. Investigators have also revealed that no weapons were found at the scene of the crime, and no bullet or knife wounds were found in an initial examination of the bodies, as per a source close to the investigation.
Unusual activity
Two neighbours have said they saw Andrew having a heated phone call before his death. Antoine Da Silva, a retired council worker and neighbour of Andrew and Dawn, shared how he saw the dad-of-two hurrying through the village making an “agitated” call in the days before he died. He said Andrew looked “very worried” while chatting to someone.
Another neighbour, who asked to not be named, also said he saw the Searles acting unusually. He said: “I saw them the day before they were found – they were walking the dogs and Andrew was on the phone. Andrew was very agitated, and he was arguing violently in English, he just waved at me and then carried on.”
‘Gangsters’ theory
Andrew, who was originally from West Sussex, spent more than 20 years working with police and the Serious Fraud Office. This included work in the field of “sanctions screening” – the process of checking individuals and groups who may be banned from dealing in the UK on account of their links with rogue nations, terrorist groups and drug traffickers.
It’s thought this would have brought Andrew to the attention of networks operating across the globe. A source previously said: “A criminal enquiry has been launched, and the fear is that the couple were murdered. They were very fit, and very popular locally, but there is a theory that they were being pursued by criminals from the United Kingdom.
The source continued: “This is currently the prioritised line of enquiry, because Mr Searle was once involved in the fight against organised crime and terrorism. It may well be that gangsters with a score to settle are behind these killings.”
